Some Awesome Stuff (But This Isn't It)

I have been traveling like crazy, and I have some really amazing stories to tell  but they deserve more thought than this post is going to get (and will be written when I can do my newest great-granddaughter justice).  This post is about my last half marathon of the year, The Happy Dirty Girls Trail Half in Sisters, Oregon earlier today.

First - I had near crippling self doubt yesterday, and nightmares all night long.  That nasty little idiot voice saying things like "I can't believe you're going to do a 13.1 trail run in the rain [actually snow was predicted] when you can barely keep your footing on a road."  And "If you get lost up on that trail, you can die."  And other such negative self talk.  I hate that nasty little idiot, and if anyone has tips on how to kill it, please do let me know.

Then, nightmares.  All.  Night.  Long.  If I got four hours of sleep, it was a miracle.  I forgot my Garmin (yeah, a big deal).  I got lost (and died on the trail).  I slipped on the wet rocks and broke my neck (good thing I bought that air lift helicopter coverage).

And this wasn't even my first half!!

So I got up at pitch black darkness, and drove the 30 minutes in the rain to Sisters.  I parked about 3/4 a mile away from the shuttle to the top (and the finish line) in a hazy drizzle, and forced myself onto the first shuttle to the top to keep myself from going back to my car and driving back to my warm, sweet home.

The walk to the shuttle bus - wet feet before I even started, wah.

On the shuttle with 40 of my dearest friends.

Waiting around at the top for an HOUR
just because I didn't trust myself to wait for a later shuttle.

The other 300 arrive at the starting line.

Only two Handsome Pacers this race, for
the fast ones.

It was rocky.  I didn't dare run over some patches of slippery rocks (but I only face planted once -yay! - although I kicked two dozen rocks and thought I was going down), and I took foreeeeeeever to finish, but finish I did (and got a dumb belt buckle for my trouble) and who was there at the finish hanging around?  Members of my training group from Footzone!  Whudathunk?

Don't let them fool you - both these ladies finished
way ahead of me!

Things I learned:
(1)  Bring dry clothes to change into at the end of the race on a rainy day (thanks, Angela Shatting).
(2)  My legs can get tired even running downhill.  When it's raining and cold and windy.
(3)  Just because I take my rain jacket off at mile two doesn't mean I won't need it at mile ten when the rain picks up and the wind blows.  Thank goodness I didn't check it in my gear bag and just tied it around my waist.
(4)  UGG slippers are worth every penny.
(5)  Maybe my distance isn't the half marathon, but the 10K.