it's an uphill battle.

it has been awhile since i typed away here and many things have happened, miles ran, bad runs had, and yes, hills ran and conquered.

enter the agoura hills 10k (o4.o5) operative word being hills. and the concept of dressing up for a race. NOT halloween.
my 2 partners in crime (beth + lauren) had been thinking about this for awhile and decided that a geeky theme with a sexy twist would do the trick. but there are a few things to consider.

1. chafing. yes. tmi perhaps?
2. heat. running with something polyester-y or long sleeved or some other form or way is a no-no. especially for 6.2 miles. (did i mention uphill??)
3. runnable. you cant just dress up as cookie monster and haul ass. it has to be remotely runnable in a certain aspect.
4. outrageous. of course.
5. what does that leave? ghostbusters. yup. you heard it. complete with original name patches, an army green ensemble, knee high black socks + yes, a radioactive watchamacallit pak.

what does all this outrageousness do? it got me through the hills.
my friends and i had this awesome sleep over, put our 'outfits' together, carbo loaded, + duct taped the life out of 1L soda bottles, radioactive labels + plumbing pipe to make the paks. it was an awesome night. complete with jokes, laughs, stories + ya know, all that girly stuff. and then we got lost. and then we were late. and then we were running up one mothafriggin hill just to get to the starting line. and before we caught our breaths the gun had gone off. peachy.

i hadn't even made it to the first water stop when i had to stop. this was probably 2 weeks after that horrid flu that beat the crap out of me. and i stopped and i walked. for a while. then i picked it up again. the long slow incline did not kill me. it was my body screaming at me, running alone + of course, the smell of manure. you have GOT to love the smell of manure.

at some point i met back with beth and lauren and that was the beginning of the fun part. 4 nasty vertical hills that just wouldn’t stop. and of course, what goes up, must come down so after going up 4 hills you had to run down one of the steepest ones i have seen. greet for sledding. running? not so much. and my favorite? “its all downhill from here on!” uhuh. except for that last 2 hills? oh whatever. i was almost done. i just kept on going.

i was on the last stretch. probably that last .2 and i could not see the finish line. the best thing is that everyone was walking around and chillin’ and i was running, alone, in the middle of the street, with a ghostbuster’s costume. so i crossed. i made it. and i thought i was getting a finisher’s medal. medals were for ½ marathoners.

i’m sorry. but we all deserved a medal for that day. i wear my cheap t-shirt with the agoura hills 10k logo proudly.

now enter Palos Verdes on o4.2o. i got lost for about an hour so by the time i got there i barely had time to stretch, had a new pair of sneakers and just had to GO. it was a cool day, perfect temperature and a great run. i was in a good zone that day. for some reason i didn’t think about it that much and / or think about the distance (15miles) and just went with it. slow and steady. i was doing fine. or good i guess. much better than i had in the previous weeks. there were gorgeous houses, a fantastic view, and a nice soft dirt path to help your knees. but out of the blue i started hurting, around 9.5 miles. a lot. we were supposed to turn around and go back up for the last 5 but i just stopped.

now. there is such a thing as listening to your body and another thing as using that as an excuse. agoura hills was hell but i finished it and there were like 8 times where i just wanted to sit down and just cry. (well, not that bad b/c every time i saw the photographer i stopped, rearranged myself and tried to look like i was having a blast!) there comes a point where i start to hurt and i loose my form. i have heard a million times that i this were easy everyone would do it. so if i start to hurt and loose my form does that mean i should stop at mile 10 when we are supposed to run 15? today i say no. in retrospect i’m confident that it would have hurt me and i would have been waddling but i could have done it.

so should i listen to my body? yes. should i use it as an excuse? no. would i go back to PV and complete the 15? eh. debatable.