Let's do this!

7 miles walk/jog on the river trail while talking to Julie bout life. Taking it easy on the quad.

75 minutes Elliptical. Weights.

5.4 running on the river trail. avg pace 7:47 Everything feels okay today in the quad. Just a touch sore. Hopefully it continues to improve and get better. I've been using and electrical current machine on it for 3 nights now. I think it's helping speed healing. 

60 min elliptical and I talk to much at the gym haha!

8 miles outside in under an hour.Let's see how do I describe today.....

No pain in my quad! I feel so good! My fitness is improving each week. I can tell. My first mile is usually always my slowest, wake-up mile. Then after that, my body just did what it knows best, running smooth and quick. I glanced at my watch at the 2 mile mark and saw split was: 7:16. I was shocked because it felt like I wasn't working very hard. Then mile 3 split: 6:59 -still felt very easy. Mile 4: 7:06. Mile 5: 7:11. And so on until the end of my run. I never below the 7:11 pace. I got emotional around mile 4 because I remembered hitting this point last year in my training, where I started hitting 7 minutes for my average everyday (non speedwork) runs. I feel like I am a little jaded after my injury this winter, and all the pain in and out's I've been through since the spring. Hurting somewhere off and on. Fighting the voices of doubt. But the last few weeks, minus the quad strain from last week, I feel something clicking inside me both physically and mentally and I am within grasp of the 3 hr marathon. If I can keep healthy, and training in this way, I know it is attainable. 

I don't run to compete with anybody. Never have. Not my style. I run for the self improvement. The joy. The self mastery. And that's the way I'd like to keep it. Bring on Hobble Creek! I'm ready.

Splits: 7:40, 7:16, 5:59, 7:06, 7:11, 7:06, 7:10, 7:11.

Weights. 55 min elliptical and 4.57 running outside. I feel kind of sore and lacking umph. I think I need to taper down.

I was feeling a little sore and heavy legged yesterday after my workout. So I rolled good last night and this morning I decided to take it a little easier and no impact. 1 hr 26 min elliptical hell. :) Tomorrow I will rest.

Random: I still would rather run TOU. Am I crazy? If I knew I'd have a place to sleep, I'd soooooo register right now for it. I feel nostalgic about that place now  :)

Hobble Creek half: 6th overall female, 38th of male and female, 2nd plc age division.

I love the hobble course! It really is a gentle rolling downhill. Woke up at 4:30 and met my friend Monica at the bus loading in Mapleton. We met up with Julie, her hubby Adam and Scott Wesemann. The bus ride up seemed so long. I had been worried this week about running this because of the quad strain I had nine days ago. I have felt it a bit off and on. So a few days ago I said a prayer that it would resolve itself, and it has.

We were the first bus up there and he dropped us right at the starting lines. We got clean POP's. :)  The race didn't start to to late. 7:39 the gun fired. I started out with Jen Hughes, who went on to win Hobble Creek for the females. And this part I want to be the focus of my race report. I ran with her for the first 7 miles. We paced each other. I always feel good with another person nearby. Both of us working together was awesome. Around mile 7 I looked up ahead at the pack of 4 Women who were in the lead. I know that Jen Hughes has been running her very best this year and she has the drive to do amazing things. So, I looked over at her and said: Jen you can reign those women in and win this. I know you can. She looked at me and said: but I don't know Lily!  I looked back at her and said I KNOW YOU CAN. GO for it! And guess what? SHE DID! She bolted from me at that very moment. And for the next 4 miles I watched Jen pick off those women one by one. I know I am one of those emotional chics about running, and today was no exception. I teared up several times watching Jen full on sprint into the lead and fight to the finish against Julie Thomas. And YES, she won!

I lost sight of them the last 1.5 miles. So during my own race running, I held a 6:30 avg during all 13.1 miles. This was a total breakthrough for me in a 1/2 marathon distance.In the past, I think in the last couple miles I would start hitting low 7's. So today felt great.  During miles 9-10, I was able to pick off 5 men one by one. I leaned into my run and felt things getting easier and easier. Mile 12, TylerS and Travis (local SF runners, Very talented) they passed by me and gave me words of encouragement. This helped me so much to keep my drive going. During the last mile I felt bouyed up by the words and cheers of the spectators. It felt really good. A sojourner volunteer riding a bike up the course passed by and said keep it up, you are 6th female, there is a women about 20 seconds behind you. That was all I needed to hear! My last mile I dug deep and found a 6:13 split. Usually I'm toast in the very last mile! I felt so good finishing and seeing my kids as usual and hearing people call my name. Nice! After wards I wandered back up the course and found Julie, and ran in with her. She did GREAT!

Jen Hughes found me after the race, and we hugged and shed a few tears. She thanked me for giving her the words of encouragement that she knew she needed to not only catch up, but win the half. She said every time she felt like she had nothing left, she would hear my voice saying: I know you can do this. And she did! She ROCKED IT!

I liked this course. I'll be back next year. And congrats to everyone else that finished it today! 

Splits:6:13, 6:24, 6:23, 6:25, 6:23, 6:20, 6:38, 6:37, 6:40, 6:50, 6:49, 6:51, 6:13