Redemption

I'm in Portland now before heading onto Ashland tomorrow and then San Francisco by Thursday night. I've had a few days of some doubts about where my body will be for the race on Saturday but things do seem to be coming back together in just enough time. I've been dealing with a minor head/chest cold but it's been just enough to give me a good amount of overall body fatigue and some burning lungs. I felt horrible on my runs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but much better yesterday and today. Should be ready to roll by the weekend.

At times over the past several weeks I've put a lot of pressure on myself to finish top three at Miwok, but now over the past couple weeks I've let most of that go. I simply want to run the best race I have in me this weekend and see how that plays out. I would love to qualify for Western States, and I know I have a great shot to do so, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape if I don't. My race this weekend will be mostly about some redemption for what was, in my mind, a fairly poor race for me last year at Miwok. Even though I finished 3rd there last year it was probably the least smooth race that I've had in the past two years. I was both mentally and physically fried by the end of that one... and not in the good way that you can be fried at the end of a race, but rather in the way that was only remedied by two full months with almost no running. Granted a huge part of that time off from running was because I was training for and racing The Great Divide bike race, but even without that I would have needed some serious time off after Miwok last year. What I want from this weekend is to feel that I got even with that course for how much it kicked my ass last year. We'll see. Oh yeah, and I want to win...