Rollercoaster

What's up? It's been two weeks since I got swine flu and ever since, these past two weeks ahve been ridiculous. I was out of classes till partway through Thursday of that week and I didn't really run that week at all. Then I worked the football game that Saturday versus Fresno St... I was on the cart and I had to cart off Travis 5 minutes into the game so I was freaking out but it woke me up... lol. Then last week I got a huge sore on my lip from sunburn, plus was peeling, plus still had an awful cough.

Plus I did not have internet because Mad City Broadband basically told me to just leave their service since they couldn't/wouldn't fix the service in my area. Soooo I had to wait all week for my new setup stuff came from AT&T, and then Thursday I tried setting it up... It wouldn't connect properly. So between Thursday night and Friday I had to call these fools like 5 times, each time they wouldn't listen to what I was actually saying and finally they sent some guy to my apartment on Friday night... delaying everything else I needed to do (pick up tents from various palces and taking them to the Lathrop house, getting all of the food ready for transport to the meet the next day, etc.)... It was a fucking nightmare. Finally the guy just went downstairs and flipped some switch and my internet magically worked...

Running has been nearly impossible the past couple of weeks since any exertion elicits insane amounts of coughing. I struggled through a hill workout on Tuesday of last week and through a basic tempo/fartlek type deal in Thursday. I was extremely worried for Parkside on Saturday because I didn't think I would be able to breath regularly during the race at all.. but there was no way I wasn't going to do it.

So the day arrived and we set off.... LATE, because we were waiting on B Schmitt who apparently overslept and we gave up and left... well, he called when we were on the outskirts of town, unfortunate for him. Actually, unfortunate for us, also, since we got to Parkside extremely late and people still needed to register so we were hassling the registration people to rush us through since it was less than an hour till us girls raced...

Yup. We didn't go on a warmup till half hour before the race was to start. I was kind of freaking out, especially since I hadn't been able to find my ibuprofen in my bag, when I swore I had brought it.. I have been taking it before I run to relax my lungs to tone down the coughing... Well we warmed up for fucking 8 minutes (compared to Jeremy who said he did like 4 miles warmup...lol & 14 miles for hte day for him!! wtf?). Anyways we rushed through getting ready and getting to the line, and actually did our ridiculous cheer this race.. and there were two new girls, Sarah and then Kaylin, who had emailed me on Wednesday looking to join the club. Things moved a little fast for her but it seems like she really wants to compete so it's awesome.

So, anyway, the race. I hadn't even really thought about racing. I had been so busy/ sick/ not paying attention, that I was on the line and I realized I hadn't thought about it at all, I hadn't had the time to get really nervous and I wasn't even sure that when the gun went off I would even be able to finish the race due to my coughing (even though I luckily found my ibuprofen about 20 minutes before the gun).

Well the gun did go off, and Sarah jumped OUT right away. I was puzzled because it wasn't me jumping out ahead but I was still clipping along up the hill on the first 800, and I was awaiting my first coughing fit. As such, my first mile was slow and conservative to the max (6:45). But a coughing fit never came, so I picked up speed continuously throughout the race and was beasting the shit out of people and negative-splitting like a crazy person. This was the first race in my life that I had gone out too SLOW. It was weird but it was good because it meant I wasn't going to die before the end. I hit the two mile around 13:10, which was.. eh, it was ok I guess.

I got to some familiar parts towards the end of the course and I was so happy it seemed like I would make it through the whole race. I kept picking up the pace and demoralizing people I was passing and got through the last hills in that final mile, before the big downhill and the chase across the field. I kicked, sort of. I think I could have gone harder but I don't know, I just didn't. I did race in a couple girls to the line and I beat half of the pack. There was one girl I virtually tied but they gave her the place over me, so I ended up with a 103rd place and a time of 20:43. This is more in keeping with te 5ks I ran over the summer which were both sub-21.

I was happy about this, and very surprised, because my previous time for Parkside was 22:18, from last year. Now, I am looking forward to getting to race at Loyola and at LaCrosse, both fast courses.. I'm pretty excited!!

Anyways, next it was the boys' turn to race. I think most of them had good races... and two of my LDC teammates for high school have officially joined the club now so it was fun to see them racing for WTC now! Jeremy had a helluva race, which was very fun to watch!

Aftrer the races people went on the usual cooldowns and Jim told me that one of our new girls, Sarah, had gotten fifth out of open runners and had won a shirt. I went to get it for her and then decided to wait to see if any of our guys had, too. Isaac, who is new, had gotten 4th overall and Jeremy got 5th overall in the open division.. I got their shirts, too.. It was pretty exciting!

Then we set out for camping (well, after showering--- Brittany and I acquired a pet snake from the lockerroom floor, lmao --- and after a stop at the Racine Culver's, or McDonalds if you were members of Apt #10.. hahaha). There was an obnoxious detour but otherwise we found the campsite with no huge problems. We checked in and paid for some firewood then chilled at the campsite until the car arrived from Madison with all of the tents in it.

We were having a lot of fun and set up everything for the night. Brittany & Kaitlyn went on a beer run while we started cooking food, then played this bag game that Sam taught us... it was pretty hilarious and mostly impossible, especially for me!! Neal was really good at it, though. Anyways, we were having a lot of fun until Ranger Wilson showed up and crashed our good weekend. I won't go into it here because this is pretty public, but it's safe to say he fucked over a few of us and left a sour taste in our mouths. I was still angry in teh morning and went off on my own away from everyone else out on the paths, going pretty fast and on slightly different trails than we went on last year. I was grumpy and disappointed in myself for shoving money & car keys at Brittany, and I was just mad in general about the situation so I didn't really want to be by anyone and I didn't want to be going the pace they were going. I was debating with myself how far to go before I turned back on the trail, when I decided on 40 minutes, then 45, then I couldn't decide if maybe I should go 50. Well I tripped on a root and went flying through the air at exactly 40 minutes, so I decided to turn around... after looking at my bloody knee and testing it to make sure I COULD keep running.

Well it's fine just scraped so I cam back and I was flying faster than before, although getting tired. I negative-split the shit out of that run, too, and I twisted my ankle as well.. When I stopped running back at the campsite I evaluated it a little bit... it was sore up high on my Anterior Talo-Fib ligament, but didn't really both me if I rotated the ankle at all and my ROM wasn't messed up, nor was there any swelling. I concluded it a winning situation and cleaned out my knee and hands to make sure I didn't get infections, lol.

Eventually we packed up and came home, and I discovered my fucking internet doesn't work again. I don't have time to get it fixed and I don't want to call those irritating, useless people again. I probably will when I get home though... because I need it to work. I've been getting soo behind in my classes because everything depends on teh internet now, and it sucks.

Today my ankle hurts but not too bad when I walk, just when I rotate it or anything. I still don't think it's serious, though, because there isn't any excessive swelling. My knee hurts on palpation but it's really not anything either so it's lucky... My gastrocs/soleus are very sore though.

So, this week I hope things get a little better. I'm already having fun being back with the football team finally. I work the game this Saturday vs. Michigan St... I'm nervous because I'm going to have a real assignment this time rather than just standing by the cart the whole time... so I'm going to be freaking out all week. Luckily I have off tues & thurs though so I can go to XC practice... Woo :)

Oh yeah, and my ATC class joined an intermural flag football league so our first game is this Thursday... we'll see how I feel after XC practice, haha.