My mom says she’s sick of refreshing my blog for updates… I get “asks” seeing if I’m OK… and someone actually used the contact form on Aaron’s website to inquire about my well-being.
Sorry for disappearing! Hood to Coast was a really intense, action-packed experience that I’ve been meaning to blog about, but I really need to sit down and devote a few hours to doing it justice. I’ve been putting it off, plain and simple.
But… it was AWESOME!
I was fortunate to get to know so many amazing runners — including my wonderful van-mates, pictured above — and we all made it to Seaside happy, healthy, and drunk on relay endorphins. I ran faster than I ever have before (like, 7:XX miles — whoa). And Nuun spoiled us all to death for five straight days.
Seriously, as amazing as Nuun the product is, the people who make up Nuun the company are a hundred times more so.
Today I ran a half-marathon “for fun” that really wasn’t much fun at all. Just like two years ago, the Labor Day Half was hellishly hot (who starts a half at 9 a.m.??) and I simply wasn’t prepared to run my best race. What began as a PR attempt completely crumbled after nine miles to exhaustion, nausea, extensive walking, and general bummed-out-ness.
Then, Megan and Zoe — Nuun employees who organized/ran Hood to Coast and made the whole experience as incredible as it was — caught up to me in the final mile and encouraged me to run to the finish with them.
We were all hurting and not caring about our times at that point, but I was the one who had to walk due to a pesky cramp. I told them to go ahead, but they walked with me for a bit, and we continued on to run to the finish line together.
This was my slowest half ever — a full 10 minutes slower than my PR — but with every hour that passes, I forget a little bit of the misery of miles 10 through 13 and remember more vividly the awesomeness of the last 0.1.
As a mostly solo runner, I’ve learned in this last week how wonderful it feels to team up with fellow runners to accomplish something great, whether it’s a 200-mile relay across Oregon or the final mile of a half-marathon.
I like to depend on myself for most things, but sometimes, we all need somebody to lean on.
Big thanks to my HTC teammates, plus Megan and Zoe, for being my somebodies.
More to come on all this soon — I promise! Aaron and I just finished the first season of Orange is the New Black, which was the biggest free-time-suck EVER. (But seriously, start watching it if you haven’t already!)
Time for bed now. Night!
Dev on Running 