It was a rainy weekend last weekend......like REALLY rainy. Doesn't happen very often here in the valley, but when it does its pretty epic. For those of us desert dwellers, consistent all day rain is so out of the ordinary, and of course we would have a race on the books.
Grandma Jill and Grandpa Steve hopped down to visit us for the weekend and our Valentines Day tradition is to run the Lost Dutchman races. Last year was a perfectly sunny year and we LOVED the marathon. Bob had signed up for the marathon this year, but took it down to a 10k after battling illness for the past two months. When we looked at the rainy forecast we were ever so glad that he had.
After IRONMAN I have been working on the whole "Not signing up for big races thing." I will admit......its hard. But good.........but hard. Frankly, I think my mind says "YES.....endurance," while my body is saying very loudly......."You have got to be kidding me" and my mind is really saying, "but sleeping in and lattes and not training.......so nice." Recovering from a first IRONMAN takes a lot of time. I'm just not ready. So the 8k was great.
I am currently training for the Spring Fever 1/2 Marathon in CO next month so the day before the race Bob and I got to head out on a rainy day 10 miler together. It was so nice to get to run long and talk. Love that guy.
The morning of the race was wet and so we left Grandma and the girls at home and headed to the race start. We decided to hunker down in our car until a few minutes before the start. It just rained and rained. Everything was soaked even before the gun went off, but there is still nothing like a race atmosphere. Once you get out there amongst hundreds of other runners all gearing up to do the same thing you are doing you all of a sudden don't look so out of your mind crazy. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH friends. They get me and why I am standing out here soaked to the bone super excited to run through the mud for a medal.
The 8k was a great trail race and it was a muddy swamp. Grandpa and I took it on and finished strong. We were covered in slop and our shoes weighed 3 times what they did at the start, but the course was gorgeous. Bob took on the 10k course and crushed it coming in 2nd in his age group. Let me tell you, when the guy trains.......the guy can run.
Fortunately, we all finished around the same time so we didn't have to stand completely soaked for too long. It was a great race and one of those truly "Just for fun" kind of days.
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