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October 29, 2005
catching up...
wednesday:
ran the lyons loop @ 5:45 am. it was raining. a nice cool, light rain. the ground was a tad slippery, but not bad. we had an adventure this morning as we cut via san anselmo into the graveyard. as we were entering the fire trail that takes you into the graveyard we were struck by the sight of a white line in a black object. Oh no, a skunk! sure, enough it was one. well, we waited a minute so it would move on and not run into us. after what seemed like a long time standing in the rain waiting for a skunk to move on we continued our run up the fire road. only to discover at the top of the small hill, the skunk was looking right at us and getting ready to run down the hill in our direction. i screamed and pulled and pushed my friend as she instructed the skunk To go that way. i was impressed with her command of the skunk language. the skunk did indeed get around us, but not without startling both of us. since it was still dark when all of this happened it made the adventure that much more exciting. who knew such adventures were to be had at such early hours of the day. we ran ~ 63+ for our loop. & the graveyard gate was open...thanks to the skunk delay. (when we run a bit faster we have to hop the fence, slower days the gates are open for us! :) )
thursday:
my wisdom tooth pain begins. due to a sleepless night (wisdom tooth woes) and a sore hamstring i decided to only pool run today. i pool ran for an hour with a few friends. we talked the entire time. the pool water was warmer than the night air. it was a very nice time.
friday:
my wisdom tooth pain continues. i'm guaranteed a spot at the dentist's office on monday and on call (if someone cancels) today and saturday. i'm taking lots of pain relievers...which helps, but then when the pain picks up it's just miserable. i'm not a great patient at all. it helps to do something, rather than just sit and bear the pain. though the pain relievers make it a bit hard to feel sure footed on the trails, so i opted to only run around lake lagunitas today at practice with the team. this is a very short but beautiful fire trail around a wonderful lake. i ran with some of the kids i don't usually get to run with. towards the end of the run the rain began. it felt great. running w/the kids really took my mind off my misery (relative tooth pain).
saturday:
despite my persistent tooth pain i ran in a local xc race. it's part of the pa xc series. at the end of the season your best 5 races plus the championship race are tallied, scored and ranked. at the start of the summer, it was my goal to be in the top 5 at the end of the season. the top 5 runners get comped the following season. it's kind of a strange prize. here you ran so well you get to do it all over again next fall for Free! well, it's compelling enough to inspire me to go for it. so with this in mind, i was wishing i had already run my 5 races so i could skip this morning's race. (of course if you win 4 races 150 points per win, 135 second and so on down the ladder you probably only have to run 4...but i haven't won any this fall or ever So...). alas i didn't. so i decided to head over to china camp and run the race. i went into the race with a different strategy. usually i go out pretty hard from the start and just try to hang on. this time i tried a new tactic. i went out "slower" and moved my way through the pack. this turned out to be perfect for the type of day i was having. i was tired from the lack of sleep the last few days, i had a headache from all the pain relievers i've been taking and my tooth was a constant reminder of that dull pain in my mouth. i went out in 6:22 or so for the first mile. from this point on, i just decided to pick off as many people as i could. i picked most of the runners off in between miles 1 and 2. and then caught two more between 2 and 3. and was passed by 1 person, a teammate the last 1 mile. i was 9th overall. and ran about 26:54 for 4.25 miles for this xc race. i'm glad it's over. my headache was worse afterwards but my tooth pain was the same. relief will come soon!
Posted by liz at October 29, 2005 04:48 PM
Comments
Hi Liz.. Biz.. sorry about all of your toothaches and headaches. I hope organzing the MA 5k Crossroads race isn't too taxing for you. I also hope you get some distraction running with your team mates this afternoon. I am thinking of you and hoping you feel better soon. So odd because I had that raging headache yesterday. Miss you and thinking of you.
Posted by: mary at October 30, 2005 05:47 AM