Making a Comeback!

Today was a very, very special race for me for a number of reasons:).

My last race (the Tower of Terror 10-miler a couple of weeks ago) was a huge challenge for me which really damaged my confidence. I have also been through a house move since then and have only been able to squeeze in one measly training run since. On the treadmill. Which barely counts:(. The house move has been incredibly stressful too and I've been so fed up. The Space Coast Half training plan requires a decent weekly long run so with last week a bust I really needed to do at least 7 miles just to stay in the game this weekend which really put the pressure on. So all in all, I wasn't exactly feeling sure that I would actually be able to finish the ironically titled "U Can Finish" race today.

The race was a Distance Dare with a 5-miler and then a 2-miler. There were medals for doing both so I got a nice and sensible early night on Saturday night, and got up at 5am this morning for my big comeback race!!

 

Challenging goals are so much more achievable in bite-sized chunks so Lu helped me to strategize and we decided to run the first 5 with 5:1 intervals, walk a mile in between both races and run the last 2 miles straight through for a total of 8 miles.

 

It was a perfect running day and the sun was just coming up as we got started. The race course was through the UCF campus which is amazingly pretty :)

 

 

As usual with all Track Shack events, it was really well organized and attended. Here we are after the 5-miler and 1-mile walk ready for the second part of the race...

 

Me and "Fire Socks" in action...:)

 

 

Love running with little kids in the short race...

 

And kids at heart. I want to be just like her when I grow up:)

 

Lu knows how to make running fun :)

 

 

We laughed a lot and focused on having fun and just finishing...

 

 

The strategy paid off perfectly and I just stayed focused on each piece as the run unfolded. Before you know it - we were all done!!

 

And then we lost the car:(

 

I remembered eventually that I have a "locate my phone app" which put an end to our wandering aimlessly across campus parking lots. But you know what? I think we walked for about 4-5 miles extra! Which means we probably did a Half Marathon today. Totally awesome and exactly what I needed!!