Backyard Burn Race Re-cap!
Happy Monday!
Sunday brought a lot of smiles and one in particular came from my experience running the EX2 Backyard Burn Trail race!
The night before I enjoyed tilapia a la cilantro, sweet potato mash, side of collards/mushrooms/english peas, and sprouted grain bread! It was spectacular and throughout dinner I kept thinking how much I couldn’t wait till the next morning and to just get running! Before I went to sleep, I got a really got stretch in and watched a little bit of JUNO (great movie).
The next morning I was woken up by my nephew hollering, guess he was just as excited about the race as I was! I have a wish, that since he has now gone to two races with me, that he will one day want to run too. Gotta start somewhere!
After I jumped out of bed, I made my way to the kitchen where I fixed a cup of jo, peanut butter and banana sandwich with my favorite sugar free syrup, and glass of coconut water. It was just all so scrumcious!
Flash forward through the drive to the race, the packet pick up, and stop right at the start of the race. All that was going through my mind was, “Shit I hope wearing my Vibrams was a good decision, I better walk away with a medal, and how I was going to beat the girl next to me no matter what”. Quick reminder this was just a race, but at the same time I didn’t come to play nice I came to run.
The course was very technical with lots of slippery rocks and steep rocky climbs. At one point I had to tell myself, “your legs are not screaming at you they are cheering you on so keep on pushing”. I used the water stations as my mile markers and knew once I passed the third one, grabbing a cup of water, that the race was almost over! Making my way through the last half mile along a muddy cliff, I prayed my ankles stayed strong and stable. The final hill stared me straight on and I charged ahead hearing my brother holding my nephew cheer me on. As I crossed the finish line, I was biting at the bit to rehydrate and get my massage : )
My brother came running up to me and told me I placed 5th in my age group of 29 and under. I was beeming ear to ear; so happy with my run, that I wore Vibrams, and with that moment in time! The only way to end this wonderful day was a celebratory lunch at Busboys and Poets, a nice long nap, sitting at Starbucks, a trip to see the new Tyler Perry film, a celebratory drink after the movie, cooking finger lickin’ chicken, and watching the last 30 min of Homeland season 1. Call me simple, but I don’t care because yesterday was awesome!
