The Summer of Anti-Mediocrity

So about a year ago I posted a little rant (as I'm sometimes wont to do) about how frustrated I was at my mediocre racing season.  It didn't seem to matter what I did, I couldn't break any of my best times at any distance. 

Well let me tell you, I've found the remedy for that.  Losing 40 pounds and training through the Idaho winter seem to have made a huge difference.  Back in May I ran my first half marathon of the year and lowered my best time by more than 20 minutes.  On Saturday I went down to Utah for the Hobbler Half where I managed to bust another 10 minutes off my best time.  My official finish time was 2:07.42.  That means my mile pace was 9:45.  I know some of you super runners will find that slow, but for me, that's pretty smoking for that kind of distance.  In fact, in every distance I've raced this year I've set a personal best!  I knocked over a minute off my 5K time and 7 minutes off my 10K time!  This summer ROCKS!!!!!

The best thing is that it felt great too!  I'm not sore or tired or hurting.  In fact, I'm ready to do another one!  (Which is good because I've got one scheduled for July 21.)  Anyway, this is me in the pink top & gray shorts.  Sadly I got passed by like 3 people in the final yards, but oh well.  It was still a great race for me!

The coolest thing happened after this race though.  My BFF from elementary school and my formative years, Christene Voyles, lives down in Utah now and her husband was running Saturday.  So we were able to see each other after the race for the first time in close to 20 years!  She's so amazing and I've always loved her!  I'm so glad we got to see each other.  Unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to get any pictures of that.  Or of the mission reunion Thursday night which was also really fun!  Actually this whole weekend was awesome! I reconnected with some of my very favorite people in the world and didn't get photos of any of them.  Nice huh?  Oh well.