There's No Time to Cry. Happy, Happy.

What a weekend, what a weekend! Holy cow. We started out Friday night with me going into the garden to see if the hyacinths had bloomed yet and finding a ton of fresh catnip...And since it was the weekend, we got the cats high. Archie was totally all about the mellow.

Thanks to the Red Shamrock Foundation for the photo.

On Saturday morning, we got up and ran a mile and a half to the site to do our first trail race of the year. Of course, for me, it was my first trail run of the year too. I had planned to do a trail run a week for the last month, but that never happened.

Soooo, here's my race report:

I went into the race without a lot of hope for a great outcome. I decided to go out slow and try to do some negative splits. I usually go out balls to the wall, but I knew I didn't have it, and even if starting out slowly isn't the fastest, it definitely makes the run less painful and more fun.

I probably started out a little TOO slowly, but I'm okay with that. The first mile or two didn't feel that great. I even warmed-up enough this time too..By the second mile my quads were cramping something fierce. I have no idea why. We hit a long uphill section and I said, screw it, and walked up part of it. After that, my quads were just fine.

After the race when we are all windswept. Thanks to Brittany McConnell for taking this.

I got into a group of four guys and we hit a single track, technical section. I suddenly remembered how to choose my line and hit my feet in the best place over logs and among the roots sticking up on the trail. It was so much fun. After we reached a more open section, two of the guys took off, I passed the other two guys and ran off, but wasn't able to catch the first two. When we got to the bouncy, bridge, I knew I was getting close to the end of the race. There were about 5 of us on the bridge at once and every time my foot came down, the bridge came up and I finally had to yell, "I hate this bridge!" and all of the other runners laughed and agreed.

I came into the finish and was very happy to be done. The winds had been ridiculous and I was exhausted, but so happy. I ended up being 6th out of 16 in my category and I was more than fine with that. They changed the course some, so I have no idea if my time was better or worse than previous years. Basically, I finished the run and remembered all over again why I love racing...Even when I'm not at my strongest. Also? I need to run more trails. I forgot how fun they are.

The winds were crazy all day on Saturday. Can I mention again about how windy it was? Apparently, I can. We both rested after the race for a bit. Then I heated up pizza for lunch and we headed to Beverly in Cedar Rapids to ride some mountain bike trails.

The high winds weren't so bad in the cover of the trees, but there were many, many sticks blowing onto the trails. About a half mile in, John got a big stick stuck in his derailleur. It looked like we were going to have to walk our bikes back to the car, but John was able to bend things enough and not use his two easiest gears, so we could ride.

We had a blast on the trails. I hadn't ridden in Beverly since last Spring, and I did miss it. They have the coolest dirt berms there. We rode about 10 miles and my legs started to get very, very sore. A vulture was following us around the trails, and I figured I should take that as a sign that he was just waiting for me to die, so he could pick my bones, and we called it a day...A lovely playing on trails kind of day, and went home. There is nothing better than the feeling of being so tired from playing outside all day that all you can do is go home and eat and rest.