Kidwell Klan: Fancy Creek

Yesterday was my February race. A 5 mile trail run at Fancy Creek. It was a beautiful day to run. It was 60* a bit breezy, but once inside in the woods you didn't even feel the breeze. My dad came with me to watch the kids. I am so lucky to have such supportive parents who are always willing to watch the kids while I make my dreams come true.

We got to Randolph a little early, and since I had picked up my packet on Saturday there wasn't much to do. My dad and I talked. I told him my goal was to finish in a hour. We line up and I meet up with my running buddies from last weekend. We all agree that our pace from last weekend was perfect.

The gun goes off and off we go. The first part of the race bottle necks and so you have to patiently wait to enter the trail. One part of the group gets in early, Josephine and I are right behind each other. She takes the lead and is our pacer. I am feeling great. Our pace is about a 12:45 mile. Which for trail running is good. The 2nd mile I look at the Garmin and it was 12:10. Sweet we picked up 35 seconds!! A little before mile 3 my stomach starts to churn, my intestines are tying themselves in knots (or at least that's how they feel.) I almost felt like doubling over. I pushed through the pain for a little bit but the pain just got worse. I walked for a little bit just trying to get the pain to leave.

Josephine had taken off in front of me and at about 3 and half miles I ran up to her sitting her on the ground. She had slipped and fell. She gets up and we take off together. She slowly pulls away but I keep plugging along. At the very end I kick it into high gear and right at the end pass her. Josephine and I took 2nd and 3rd in our age group. I wasn't even planning on placing. I finished with a time of 56:53. My average pace was 11:51 over a minute faster than we ran it last week. `