Holy smokes, I have a lot of work to do.
On the drive home, I obsessed over the workouts I missed in my training, the workouts that I should have run faster and the core exercise that I avoid. While I ran the best race I could have, it just didn’t seem like enough and seriously bummed me out.
When I got home, my kids climbed over each other to hug me, ignoring the mud and the stink. My schwag included locally produced honey, custom socks and a very cool t-shirt — and Isaac declared the shirt and socks his favourite ever (they feature the race’s skull and crossbones logo). They didn’t care that I was slow — they just think that it’s awesome that their mom races in the woods and comes back with clothes that make her look like a pirate.
Sometimes I forget although I’ve been running for years, trail and ultra running is a whole new world and that it is all new to me and the more I train and race, that I will get faster (likely not the fastest, but at least faster). That, at the heart of it, I love running and on Saturday, I did the best I could, my kids think I’m awesome and my husband and friends think that I’m nuts. Which is really what it’s all about for me.