Kicked It Into Gear

It's rainy outside. And cold. The perfect time for a nap. But alas, I am stuck at work...and it's slow--as in, no customers. So perfect time to blog right?!

I'm thankful that the rain decided to hold off until later this afternoon, as I ran in the Tyler Azalea 10K this morning. This is probably one of the runs I look forward to the most every year, as it's kind of now a pre-birthday tradition for me. (hint hint - my birthday is Monday.) The day was cloudy and temps in the mid-fifties, but still perfect for a scenic 6.2 mile run.

I was so excited when my alarm went off this morning because it was the first time, EVER that I had managed to sleep through the whole night before a race. I've done more than a dozen races now and before every. single. one. I was never able to get a restful sleep. I would always toss and turn, wake up every few hours -- afraid that I was going to wake up late or miss the race. Maybe because this run was closer to home, or maybe I'm finally becoming seasoned enough to not have those race jitters -- who knows!? All I know is....I got to catch some serious ZZzzZzs that really did "do my body good."

Quite a few of my friends ran this race today & it's awesome to have a group of running buddies. Speaking of, my running buddy that I've been training with the past few months, ran her first RACE EVER today -- and let me just say, she ran #likeaboss. Hashtag is non-negotiable on that :) [**side note** check out her blog--link there in the upper right corner!]While most of my other friends took off ahead in the pack, we stuck together for most of the run. We PR'd and broke all kinds of personal records that we held for ourselves in this one run alone. ONE. RUN. We ran our fastest mile, our fastest 5k and fastest 10k! BOOMshakalaka! I ended up finishing a whole 10 minutes over my time from last year, thanks to continued dedication in training, my #cave work and a stronger mental focus. Official time today was 1:09:17! I'm super proud of myself and of my running partner. We continue to push ourselves continuously and the hard work is paying off in results. It's amazing, when you kick yourself into gear -- what you can accomplish. If any of you are struggling out there, that's ok. We all have setbacks, just take yourself outta park, put yourself back into gear and keep cruising. Your best is yet to be seen. Happy running!