FLTRS RACE #3: BEAL'S POINT

Last night was the third race in the Folsom Lake Trail Runner Series. The course was Beal's Point, my least favorite. I don't know what it is about this course but it kicks.my.butt. Every time. Last night was no exception other than it REALLY kicked my butt more than usual. Let's go back shall we?

The Peanut has had a very rough week. Yes, two year olds can have rough weeks too. Poor kid scraped her knee at daycare this week and literally has zero skin on her knee cap. It hurts her to move, wear pants and yes, sleep. Not long after scraping her knee, we were in the pharmacy buying some medicine for said knee when she tripped (due to her knee not being able to bend) and face planted (hard) onto the hard tiled floor of the pharmacy. This kid has some chompers and of course one of those chompers went right smack into her lip. Gushing blood, hysterical screams and swelling started immediately. Like I said, poor kid. That was Wednesday night, the night before Thursday's race.

She (and consequently I) slept a total of 2 hours that night. Yes, 2. Now I don't want to make excuses for my poor performance on Thursday however, c'mon racing after a full 8 hour work day at a desk job (that is currently sucking the emotional life outta  me) AND only having had 2 hours of sleep??? Needless to say, when I pulled into the parking lot at Beal's I was on empty big time. Not even my Vanilla Gu was enough battle my sleep deprivation.

Speaking of Gu . . . SkinnyRunner is having a Gu giveaway! So hop on over and check out her hilarious blog. The girl has some skilz!! Be sure to tell her trailmomma sent ya so maybe she'll give me a few extra entries into that giveaway of hers (SR, ya reading???).

So I took the aforementioned Gu about 15 minutes prior to race start. Usually perfect timing right? However, we had a few pre-race announcements which pushed our start time back just a bit. No matter. Not even 1,000 Gus would have helped.

What did brighten my day however was having Jersey Girl and Lil' Scout show up to cheer on myself and Scrapbook!

Seriously, how could that face NOT cheer anyone up? Lil' Scout is too precious for words. He is by far, the happiest baby I have ever met. So mellow and with the bluest eyes. The Peanut might become a cougar some day since Lil' Scout is just a tad younger!

I digress, sorry. The race started with a different route than 2 weeks ago. We began on pavement which is always a bonus for me since I am much faster on paved surfaces than dirt.

My first mile was 7 something and then something happened. A big wall jumped out of no where and just pummeled me. Who hits a wall at mile 2?! Me, that's who. I literally said "I quit" and was about to stop and turn back but decided fighting my way through all the runners behind me would just irritate me more and heck, I already paid for this race. I struggled onward. Sucking wind up every hill, cursing the sandy section and trying really hard to just keep my legs moving. My pace slowed to the 9's according to my garmin.

Our turnaroud spot is after the water tower climb. However, while running on the Cavitt Dirt Road (this is not the appropriate name for this road I am sure, if any local readers know what it is called, please share) I became dilusional. I thought to myself "crap! I missed the turnoff to go up the hill." I was totally alone. No runners in front of me and no runners behind me which never happens. I honestly thought I missed it and slowed down just a tad and decided if I did so be it. I am not turning around to find it. Glad I had that mini talk with myself because shortly after that I came across the turn off. Yes! I hadn't missed it after all. I was elated until I had to climb that hill. Ugh. This time I practically walked the entire hill. I had no engery to get myself up it at.all.

Once I reached the top however, I flew down the other side. In all of my years of running, I can honestly say I have never had foot issues. Last night I felt a burning on the bottom of my foot, as in a blister potentially forming. I wonder if the reason I have never had feet issues before is because I have never just let myself run hard on the downs? Either way, I figured the only way to get closer to the front group was to fly on the downs since clearly the ups were a huge struggle for me.

The run back on the Cavitt Dirt Road was better than it was on the way out. I had taken a swig of HEED at the aid station near the water tower and even though I rarely stop for fuel on a 10K race, I needed that boost. Although that warm HEED almost made an appearance later bleh! I am happy to report that I ran the Cavitt Dirt Road the entire way, both on the out and on the in (the water tower climb is a side trail, doesn't count in my book). This is huge for me because in all of my training runs for WTC and AR50 I have at some point walked this road. Like I said, I have a bad history on this course and I think slowly I am conquering that. Now I need to figure out how to conquer the trails near Beal's Point.

I really thought I blew it this race. I couldn't even see any runners in front of me after the second mile. I had no idea what place I was in at all. As it turns out, I was second in my age group again! Score! Once again the leader beat me by a good 10 or 11 minutes (seriously, who IS this woman?).

Next week I will be sure to get enough rest the night before and hopefully the Peanut will too. Her Wednesday night did improve mind you when we stopped at Trader Joes and the check out clerk fell in love with her and gave her 3 rolls of Trader Joe Stickers!

The proper placement for stickers no?

    You can see the scrape on her left knee.

    Poor kid.