I am not very good at tapering.

I went to the All Comers Track and Field Meet tonight and was late. Because of the rain they whipped through the events so my two were DONE when I got there! Dang! Last week was the first time I've ever done a track meet and I ran the 800 and 1600 and set records in my age group with 3:41 and 7:46. Don't be impressed, I'm the only one in my age group who has ever run those distances in the history of the meet. LOL! So tonight I wanted to run them again to see if I could break my own records, but I missed them!

So I decided to stay for the 10k. It was me and THREE HIGH SCHOOL TRACK KIDS! Okay...no freaking way. I tell Roy "No, I'll just run home. This would be too embarrassing." So they come over to me and BEG me to run with them. I joked that they would pass me 17 times and would need to mock me and it would hurt my self esteem. They promised not to mock...so I said I'd run.

They passed me SIX TIMES! OMG the humiliation! But you know what, I do believe this was my fastest 10k yet. Lemme check...

Nope, the Dawg Dash was faster. Close, though! Ran in my new Gel Eveolutions, they felt good.

Sweet thing was, the boys came out and ran the last six laps with me. Isnt' that sweet? Nice kids! So while it was embarrassing, it was also really nice and I'm glad I did it.

It was a rainy, icky run twenty-six times around the track. I had to type that out because running TWENTY SIX times around a track kind of sucks. Running TWENTY SIX times around a track in the rain, sucks donkeys. Running TWENTY SIX TIMES around a track in the rain alone as the very last person sucks donkeys runny noses.

Naw...it was a good experience. My cheer section was awesome. Every lap I'd run by Roy and he'd do something new...he did the wave, he held up his cell phone and did the waving it in the air (it was dark by this point), he did cheers. It was SO cute. Every time the boys passed me they told me I was doing great. Every time I passed the girls who were timing they told me great job. I just listened to my podcast and marveled at how good it felt and how relatively fast I was going. I'm really glad I did it...even though I had a single spectator and came in dead last. LOL!

Last night's 5k class was the awesome! We had a total of 5 people, 4 who were new (2 didn't make it, but will next week). It was SO great to meet four new people; Mel, Krista, Jodie, and Sherrie! I hope they had a good time, I know I did! I am LOVING this and just can't wait to do more classes like this. It's like doing two of my favorite things at once; teaching and running. I think that's why I'm leaning in this direction of running coach, personal trainer. I love to teach. I don't want to ever stop teaching because I get such a buzz out of the give and take of teaching because I learn as much as I teach. It's such a reciprocal relationship.
My half marathon group begins August 9! I sure hope to get a few people...five at least would be nice. I'm okay with starting small because it gives me a chance to really get to know the runners. And I am SO thankful, of course, for Roy because he's working with walkers. It's allowing him to remain involved in running with his bad knee, and it's helping me dramatically.

I had three awesome experiences today! First I went into Wamu to deposit some checks into my business account. Aside...I really REALLY like the people at Wamu. They have never been anything but the NICEST people to do business with. Anyhow, one lady was helping me and another was standing behind her and she noticed my business name and asked if I was a personal trainer. I said I was and we got to talking and she told me she'd love to hire me with a group of friends to do either a circuit training class (I have happened to have taught that before when our aerobics trainer didn't show a few times) or a walking class!

Then I was heading into Haggen and I saw a friend I RARELY see who is just the MOST awesome person in the world, Angie Cartmill. She told me that she'd been hearing from Janis about how great my 5k class is and she asked me to send her some flyers through inter-office mail because she knows her staff would be interested in a program after school! How perfect would that be?

Then I went into Run26 to check up on them coming to do a shoe seminar for me and they were SO nice. The guy who helped me moved my name to the top of the list of calls to return (boss has been on vacation) and they put out my miniature flyers I created. He said they have a lot of people who come in who want to run longer distances and he's sure there would be interest.

Of course nothing could come of any of it, but what a nice boost for my confidence! It was like I could hear myself talking like a professional person with a brain and part of me was like "Hee heee heeee! This is so cool!"

Someday I'll grow up I suppose...

IRONMAN 70.3 SUNDAY! EEEK!