Hello friends, It's been several months since my last update on my running journey! I'm nearing two years of consistently running, and I've accomplished lots of things. In my February update post, I shared that I reached a half marathon distance, I competed in a 10k night trail race, I hit my 1 year 'runniversary', and my furthest distance ran was 15 miles. Since then, I've experienced and grown a little bit each day, and I'd love to share some of the highlights! If you'd like to follow along with my day-to-day training updates, I'd love a follow on my fitness instagram @grinsandfitness. Come say hi! Anyways, here are all the latest and greatest deets. I Ran Another 10k Trail Race Guys, this was a blast but also chaotic. I did the Winter Night Owl 10k trail race back in January, and knew I wanted to try again in the summer. The hiccups I experienced during the January event was that it was so so muddy, so I was definitely back of the pack. But with this one, I was excited. I was ready. And my boyfriend was even sweet enough to drive me there. But something that threw me off was that I took off at the start line and realized (pretty quickly, thankfully), that I forgot to put my bib on. For those of you who haven't participated in a race, a bib typically has a magnetic chip in it that starts and ends your time when crossing through the start and finish line. So I turned around, sprinted to the car and Jordan helped me put my bib on. I reentered the start line, took off and caught up decently quickly to several runners within that first mile, despite the delay. My adrenaline was pumping, so I kept finding myself passing more and more folks, until that inevitable point in a race where you're behind the same person for minutes, or even miles. That's honestly one of my favorite parts of a race. I love having my eye on that person in front of me and thinking, I'll pass this person and create a big enough gap where no one else will be able to pass until I'm already across the finish line. It's a big and confident energy that overcomes me, and it helps me keep that drive and momentum throughout the whole race. I felt strong this race, I felt fast. I only fell once. And I finished in the more mid-to-front of the pack. I felt so proud. It's all a learning experience and I'm so glad I persevered after that hiccup with the bib and came out even stronger than I expected. My goal for the next trail race is to compete in the half marathon distance. It'll be my longest trail run to date. |