S Club Mama

Brr! It was cold today in Peru, Nebraska home of my alma mater. I love going back to Peru, truly; it just feels like home. Today it was a cold home, but home nonetheless. Big A and I decided to register again for the Nebraska's Toughest Mile competition and I'm fairly certain the hills were steeper this year. Ugh. My time went from 9:25 last year to 10:06 this year. It was colder, I'm less trained (I was primed from a half marathon last year), and it was cold. But I finished with lungs burning and the taste of blood in my mouth (not sure why this ONLY happens when I run this race, but weird). I sat myself in one of the restroom stalls in the Student Center sure that I was going to barf, but luckily, that didn't happen. Phew! finishing! Seriously, people, one mile seems so simple, but this is uphill almost literally all the way. And not just up hill but UPHILL. Yuck. We had our friends G and L ride up with us so that we could spend time with them (it had been ...

I don't have any pictures to share (although I looked smashing) but hopefully my family will email me some soon so I can show you all! This morning was so cold it caught your breath. And when I shed my jacket, it was worse. After we started, I didn't feel cold until the end (when I was freezing). The course was supposed to be really hilly and I was scared, but it wasn't very bad (we think that it's because we trained on semi-hilly terrain). The worst part about the race was stopping at the first water stop about 2 miles in to use the porta potty. I even used one before we started but things get to moving....you understand. Took 5 whole minutes (lots of people, 2 portas) to get back on course. But once we did, I didn't feel like walking until the very end. Even when we had to go up this mile-long hill (not super steep, just long). I wasn't going super fast...never did the whole race (and I was very snail-ish at the end), but I didn't walk at all. That was ...