Close but no Cigar

On my quest to pick up a qualifying time for the steeple, I thought racing back to back distance races might be a brilliant idea to achieve that. Of course as we all know that is simply not the case. I was paying for those two 3K races days later. My calf muscles did not want to do anything, by anything I mean anything, including walking. Not good especially since I was planning on racing New England's on Sunday, a mere 4 days later. My only solution to hopefully get myself up and running was resting , and lots of massage (self and paid). I bit the bullet and didn't run the days leading up to the next meet. This could have been detrimental, but not so much as devastating as not being able to run or attempt again.
I hop on the bus for yet another 4 hour pilgrimage to Boston. Per usual I like to fill my cup til it runneth over. I started off with a meager intermediate hurdle action. I was simply just curious as to what I could run on pure strength and no speed. I seriously did not have any expectations, yes you read that correctly no expectations. I mean I did kind of hope that I'd hit the minimum time for Nationals, but that was just hoping. In the end it proved to be blah, I went over the first hurdle ok then I'm not sure what exactly happened at the 2nd hurdle. Not sure if I forgot I was hurdling or in my attempt to studder step I got too close, but I approach hurdle 2 and miss my take off so I stop at the hurdle for a good couple seconds. I sit and debate walking off the track or popping over the hurdle and continuing. I make a split decision and continue to finish the race. I knew the end result wasn't what I was looking for but I finished the race and looked forward to the next race, steeple.
I was geared up and ready to take on the steeple, I chatted with another teammate in the race during our warmup and settled that I would stick with her for as long as I could and then when I couldn't I would keep her within distance.  After 2 laps I lost contact with her but I kept her in my eye trying not to let her get more than 100m ahead. For one of the1st times racing this race I felt really good going over the barriers, especially the water pit. I really thought that I might have a chance, but yet again I was disappointed by 23 seconds. I was however 1 min faster than the week before so I knew that there was progress, I would just have to find another race to beat it out of myself.
A good plus besides the improvement was my family came down to cheer me on. It was nice to be able to see them since the move. I also decided to make it an extra long weekend and stayed through Tue to practice with the team and hang out with friends. What more could a girl ask for, I certainly was a happy camper!