2005 Tamalpa Challenge

First race with a cast. It was a short cast, but I had had only 11.5 days of healing before the race, so I was racing very carefully. Have you ever run with the awareness of trying not to fall on trails for 30 minutes? It makes you much slower AND unbearably sore the next several days too! It felt as though I hadn't been training! Where did all that cross training go on the elliptical the week before? Ouchie. A cool lady passed me at mile 3 (in the 4.25 mile race) and encouraged me, "Let's go get the SLUGS!" (There were UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs running the race). When I tried to catch back up to her and didn't within the half minute of silence, she pants, "Come on, already!"
I breathe back, "I'm trying! My legs won't move!" Eventually, I catch her on a hill and say, "Last hill...".
"Really?" she asks.
"I think so."
Unfortunately, she didn't stay with me and I beat her. I felt a little bad about finishing ahead after all that encouragement, but we did both beat at least one slug. =)

Yes, I really did talk that much at the end of the race. My lungs were totally fine; my legs were the slowing down factor.

Oopsie

So, in October, I broke my arm. It was the Monday night before Shoreline. Shoreline was significant to me because that was where I fell apart last year. I was SO looking forward to running, but the orthopedic doctor told me no. *sigh* I ran the next races and finished the season in a cast. I was 139 lbs. when I broke my arm.

2005 Folsom - another good race

This was a confidence boost and the first race that I ran fairly even splits. Nobody passed me after 1 mile. With that territory, (and assuming I wasn't dead last, which I wasn't) means that I passed a fair amount of runners the last 2.1 miles. My time, unfortunately, was a disappointment. The course changed from last year and we all assumed it would be faster, but I ran 7 seconds slower. 7 seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but it is a ton if you've been breaking times from last year by at least 30 seconds every race and you think that the new course is faster. That is like running 50 seconds slower than expected. Comparing the results of last year and this year, however, shows that the new course is slower anyway. Hooray! Plus, I finished even higher up in the top 50%. 22:05

Presidio 2005 - The hilliest race I've ever run

...and the longest 3.55 miles of my racing career. I raced at 7:50 pace apparently, but I raced fairly well, placing in the top 50%. I think my goals for this race was to break 8 minutes/mile, which I did. I hadn't ever raced this course before and looking at the previous year's times, I knew it was a SLOW course, so I couldn't really make any well-informed goals or plans. The best part was flying by people on the steep downhills and on the last steep uphill. I think I vowed to work harder at hills after this race.