Surprise

Surprises in my experience are either really really good or really really suck. The former is always welcome. My last case of surprise came at first as not so welcomed but ended up turning to splendid. After a pretty rough week of an emotional roller coaster from the Boston dealings, a fellow teammate/friend and I decided to have a Friday girls night in, wallowing in cupcakes, banana bread and beer. Then randomly at 930p my text message goes off, I ignored since we were mid chat. About 30 min later checked my phone to see what the text was, it was from my coach. This was the dialog Coach: Penn Relay 4x400 Me: Um do you need me? Hadn't planned on running it Coach: Surprise Me: Ok End text convo. Yes I was surprised, then got a little excited, then a little annoyed (because it was last minute) then a excited again (because I thought wow my coach has faith that I can hang with the uber fast girls) then annoyed again (because it changed my racing plans from doing an open meet and racing hurdles). The next couple days were on the verge of frustration. How was I getting to Philly? When was I going to be able to race hurdles again? Then finding out there were 2 teams and I was on the "B" Team. Though not an ounce of offense to the other relay mates on that team, I didn't want to forgo an open race to race a relay with the slower of the teams. I know that sounds rude and selfish but in my defense I only have so many opportunities to race hurdles. I eventually snapped out of my grumbling because I know that Penn Relays is supposed to be fun. I had even tried to scheme racing the relay on Friday then sauntering to NJ on Saturday to fulfill my original race plans (last min squashed those plans when I realized it wouldn't have been in my best interest to do that). Pouty mood still a little in effect I hopped on the afternoon bus to Philadelphia, thankfully I had one of my prior training mates and good friend there to disperse my not so pleasantness. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and perfect running weather. We got in a little after 2p, she was set to run in the 4x100 at 5:20p and then both of us in the 4x4 at 7pm, her on the "A" team, me on the "B". After we got to Franklin Field we found our coach to get passes and run down on relays. At that point the first team was down a leg, coach shuffled 1 of the other girls off the second team on to the first, I was lead leg of the second team. Not going to lie I kinda sulked over that for a second because I had hoped that I might be moved up, but I accepted his decision. A little bit afterward he pulled me aside and asked what I thought I could run (since I haven't run an open 400 outdoors yet). I told him wholeheartedly believed I could run a sub 60. He said it was between me and another girl as to who he wanted to put on the A team because we were about the same time wise and he wanted to run the fastest team possible for that team. As much as I wanted to scream pick me put me on that team, I told him my peace of confidence in myself and said that it was his choice and whatever he thought was the right choice I would accept it and run as fast as I could on whichever team I was on. I was very proud of my non meltdown and acceptance during that conversation. Then around 5pm when my coach came by with our relay bibs, he handed them to me said "A" 3rd leg. Say what?! Woah, wasn't expecting that. I looked at him and said "Really, are you sure?", with my heart and stomach doing back flips from the excitement/over joy and then nerves because I knew a lot was riding on my performance now. He nodded and said yes. Surprise. Yes another surprise indeed. At 6pm I set forth on my warmup, then at 20 min til we made our way to the paddock area. Apparently that was late and we were rushed in as they had last called our event. Oops! There were supposed to be 6 teams in the Women's Olympic Development 4x400, to our surprise (yep surprises all around this meet) there was only 1 other team in the holding cube with us, other than the 2nd team. Huh interesting. With the team in there (a team not so known to be sprinters), there really was very little way the "A" Team couldn't win (minus a DQ). We kept waiting to see if the crazy even super faster teams were going to join us in the paddock but it never happened. Then it was go time. Our first girl got out blazing, then 2nd leg, then I lined up to grab the baton for the 3rd leg. I have only once ran at Penn, it was 6 years ago and it was in a 4x100, I knew the track was weird but I didn't really know how weird until I stepped on to run a 400. I got out was running completely by myself, no one was ahead, and the next girl was about 6-10 seconds behind me. I don't really remember much of my leg other than thinking I was at the 200m mark and telling myself to turnover when I was actually at the 270m (weird track). Then passed the baton to the anchor girl and wobbled towards my other teammates on the infield. After our anchor girl finished they ushered us quickly over to the podium stand, gave us each the infamous gold Penn Relays watch the winners are presented with, then had our picture taken. It was all kind of surreal. I never in my years thought I'd have a Penn watch, granted it was by fluke, but still hours before I wasn't on that team. I ended up running a 60 flat which wasn't my goal but still a PB for me and I walked away from a winners stand. I'm not sure what the other girl that was in the toss up cusp ran, I believe it was about the same as me, I can only hope that I ran well enough that my coach's decision was made valid. In the end it turned to be a great surprise and one I won't likely forget.

Blame it on the sugar

That's what I'm going to start using as my excuse for anything crazy & off the wall I do. I'm just going to blame it on the lack of sugar in my diet making me do insane things. I mean you have to put the blame on someone or something, right?
I thought that I ended my season on Monday and though technically I did, I found myself lining up on a line to "race" on Thursday. For some reason unbeknownst to me I thought hoping into a 1500m race was a superbly brilliant idea. What sprinter in their right mind thinks that a mile is a good idea, seriously I don't know any. Also what runner who's weekly mileage amounts to about 10-15 miles a week decides to run a distance like that. See lack of the white stuff, mmhhmm. Originally I was going to the track to join a leg of a the ridiculous relay I did last year that went into the wee hours of the morning, because I hadn't gotten a chance to get to the track to do my workout earlier in the day. It was promised this year that the same thing would not happen by only hosting 1 open race beforehand. I'd do the relay as a workout 5 200's with about 3-4min rest, just 1 200 shy of what I was supposed to do for my workout. No problem. Then somewhere during my day I said to myself I should do the 1500, just to see. Really not so sure what I wanted to see, but alas I saw. I jogged up to the Armory, paid my fee, with 10 min to spare being late per usual, chatted with a fellow teammate. Beyond the look of what in the world are you thinking, she asked if I'd pace her to 4:48. Sure since I of course ran through what splits I needed to hit to go about 4:50 (yea I was being a bit ambitious but if I was going to do it may as well attempt to go for it). I may have scared her when I told her what I was going to go through for the first 800, but she figured that she would stay a few lengths behind then take over after. I went through the first 400 exactly what I aimed, then fell a little short on the next 400 where she took over, then in true unconditioned mileage I fell off in the the 3rd quarter. Held on for the last 300m. Clocked in an impressive 5:02.5, making a 7 for 7 races all personal bests. Sweet deal, considering my lack of endurance. On top of it was able to help my teammate procure a PB as well, not so shabby for not planning to race.
Race out of the way I had a little break before the relay while the rest of the women's heats and men's heats went off. Once all the races finished up low and behold the 1st heat of the relay went off at 8ish pm, there'd be no Friday morning at the race. Nice. I managed even after a hard race an hour before to churn out some decent but painful 200's in 29-30-30-31-30.  A second faster in every 200 than last year and I didn't run anything before that one (granted it was pretty late).
Some serious strength going on right now, hope I can hold on to it (*knock on wood* injury free) for the next couple months. Good things, good things...ok so maybe the lack of sugar isn't sooo bad.