As I woke up on Sunday, I could see light, but I could also see that the sun hadn’t actually breached the mountains yet. So I stayed in bed for a few more minutes.

Not wanting to annoy my sweetheart with the snooze on my alarm, I got up. I looked outside… still no sun over the mountains. Darn! If it doesn’t peak over the top, my run would be very chilly… but since I was doing 8 miles, I knew the sun would come up at some point.

I slowly put on shorts, sports bra, shirt, filled my water bottle, put my Nike+ and gel in the pouch on the bottle. Put gloves next to the water bottle. I got clothes out of the dryer so I could have the socks I wanted. How else could I procrastinate? I checked the temperature… 4 times.

Finally I thought the sun was coming. At just about 8 o’clock, I headed out into the most perfect temperature. I waved to the neighbor who was putting up some sort of brick structure in his yard.

There were cats, dogs, horses, cows, llamas… nothing unusual. About 3/4 of a mile in, the sun came over the mountains, and kissed my chilled skin. It stayed at the perfect sun-kissed chilly temperature through the run.

At four miles, I took my gloves off. At six miles, I had a gel (this was my first time trying Honey Stingers – yum!) just like normal. And the last two miles? Not hard. I wasn’t tired, my legs weren’t starting to say ‘hey, this is long’. I just ran, and it was completely normal. I ran at exactly the pace I should have for a long run – I didn’t have to work at it at all. It just happened.

It’s amazing how a normal run with no extraordinary moments can be a completely extraordinary run.

The Dirty Dash was a blast!

Chris took a pretty good set of pictures, but I won’t post all of them.

Here’s me before: 

Here’s everybody starting out uphill in the mud:

Soon after that, we hit the dirt, and I realized quickly that I was allergic to whatever was in the air today. My throat burned…the entire race. There were a couple of water stations, but they were little relief. Although, this explains a lot about why I never had good races in this area in high school.

Here are is a picture of one set of walls.

There were three or four walls. This is after several mud pits, snow machines (only blowing water because it’s so hot), lots of hay bales, and tunnels to crawl through. I found myself amply prepared for the walls – our cross country course in high school went over several fences and through a river, and I found the knowledge gained there invaluable today. I got over walls much faster than other people, and knew what I had to do to keep from losing any shoes. Oh, on the side of the walls you can see the slip-and-side, which was toward the end and was the best part, without a doubt.

Here’s me going through the mud-pit:

And here’s me afterward: 

And…here’s the blisters. Now, I’m usually a fan of just leaving blisters alone. But do you see that? That’s MUD IN my blister. I’ll be cleaning that out now.

I traded times with someone for a 4PM instead of a 9AM race time (see here). So, who knows if my time will show up in his age group or mine (we did notify race officials, who were totally cool with it). But either way, I’m excited to see how well I did. I ran surrounded by a group of guys, so I assume I was going a pretty decent pace. I expect results will be posted sometime in the next week.

Regardless, it was so much fun. If you have the chance to enter a mud run, definitely go for it!

So, I’m just taking it easy before the Dirty Dash on Saturday (packet pickup tonight! yay!) and then diving into half-marathon training next week. While I should be getting stuff done here at the office…

This is a list of things I would love to have while training this fall/winter:

First, a pair of  Vibram Five Fingers. Either the KSO or the KSO Trek (since they are now available in women’s sizes). I’d like to give barefoot running a try, both for the physical aspects, and because I think learning to run barefoot would be a good mental break for easy days.

Since it’s definitely fall outside, and colder temps with wet weather are coming fast, I really would like a new running jacket. I’m not really picky about what kind. Zip off sleeves would be cool, but not necessary. Oh, and pockets. The Outdoor Research Women’s Synapse would be a good choice according to an old Runner’s World article. I’m not really looking for warmth so much as wind/rain/snow protection. The most important part is that any zippers don’t rub my neck or chin… 

I saw this Marmot Firefly jacket in the Marmot store when I bought my PreCip for hiking this summer. This jacket is awesome. It’s super soft, has wind-stopper technology, is really warm, and venting. Awesome, but obviously expensive. Way out of my league. (I only got the PreCip because I had a gift card!)

A Garmin 405. Okay, truthfully, I’d be okay with the 205, the 305, or the 405. I wouldn’t be that picky. My basic requirements are that it has a GPS and can connect to a computer. I do like my Nike+, but I yearn for elevation and altitude info, and would like the capability to program in workouts.

A pair of Yaktrax so I don’t have to abandon plans when it snows or ices over. My favorite 5-mile loop goes under a couple of tunnels that become absolute ice if it gets even the slightest bit warmer…or colder..or someone looks at them wrong. Plus they pack the rail trail in the area so runners, walkers, and bikers can use it, and it’d be nice to be able to use it between packings.

My own personal masseuse. Yep, just like this: 

What’s on your fall/winter wish list?

I ran one of my favorite routes last night – a 5 mile loop from my office. I was lucky enough to not get hailed on, as the weather had been doing on and off all day. I met a very nice dog named Dexter who was taking his two boys for a walk. It really was a great run that I got to do because I had a late evening meeting at my office.

About 4 miles in, I caught myself doing something I know I do fairly often. I was having a conversation… with myself… or, with the imaginary person who I was having a conversation with. I just like to plan out how I’m going to approach things during my runs, and my mind wanders, and I imagine conversations. Except then I realize I’m actually moving my mouth and often my hands, and making other physical movements indicative of having a conversation. No sounds are coming out… but how is someone driving by on the street going to know that?

So if you see me running down the street looking like I’m talking to someone, just know there’s a great conversation taking place in my head.