storm the dam trail half marathon, year two.

Let's get something straight, right off the bat before I get into this post. Last year? I was 100% delusional about this trail half. I don't know why I thought it was so amazingly fun last year. I do have my theories, one being that I was better trained and prepared and wasn't psyched out for weeks ahead of time (because i didn't know what was in store). Reason two was that the weather was much cooler, like perhaps 15 - 20 degrees cooler. And probably the biggest reason was that I did the race with a gaggle of girlfriends (i realized i never posted pictures of last year's race, but below are a few). Last year I was all happy during the race, running along in my oblivious little world with Lea for most of the time. All dooop-de-doo just trottin' along on a trail for 13 miles. I want to slap last year's me in the face. Hard.

*last year, pre-dam trail 1/2 with the girls. lea, candace, myself, jessica, katie and liz*

*lea and i during the race last year*

This year? An entirely different experience. HOLY SNIZ did I have my ass handed to me at the dam trail half marathon. It was awful. And I won't make a bevvy of excuses, I just plain shouldn't have run the half. But guess what? Instead of following my gut and doing the 5K with my buddy Shelley, I decided to try and get another half marathon under my belt. That was a mistake. But in the end I finished, with a brutally huge personal worst. Another running lesson learned. I wasn't ready mentally or physically to handle it. I rolled my ankle during mile two and it was all just downhill and painful and ugly from there. I wanted to quit by mile five and get big fat DNF No. 2 for the year, seriously. I just didn't care, because I just didn't want to do it.

However...and yes there is a huge however. I am glad I ran the race in the end, even though I shouldn't have. And even though I will never do it again (if I do it will be the 5K) I'm happy I have another half marathon to my name, and learned quite a few lessons. Plus it was great to be there with some interwebs friends (or if you're hardcore, that would be interwebz with a 'z', i'm not that cool yet). Mark and Lacy were amazingly fast, per usual.

The only redeeming quality of yesterday was the fact that they, along with Shelley, were nice enough to wait around for me to finish and we socialized for quite awhile after the race. Which I was happy about. Honestly I was bummed I was going to the race with so few running buddies at my side. I just 'didn't wanna' without them all. Which made me realize I'm perhaps far too dependent and used to racing with at least three or four friends by my side. Most notably my security blanket The Lawyer. Pout. But maybe it's not such a bad thing that I'm used to running with so many people. Maybe that just means I'm running for the right reasons for ME, to socialize and spend time with my favorite people. So hanging out afterwards made me feel much better and not so alone at that race. Thanks fellow interwebers (and shelley). I like you guys, neat-o gang.

*i pilfered this from lacy. it's mark, myself and lacy after the race. um, they look so much less disgusting than me*

Now let's go ahead and forget about that trail race and look forward to a race I decided last week NOT to do. A half marathon in Peculiar, Mo., that I re-decided to do and focus on trying to not suck at it. Of course I decided to do it. I have a bad race, so I have to go and make up for it, or at least try. Plus I just plain want another half marathon to my name. There aren't that many in this area to do, so I have to capitalize when I can. It's how I roll.