My goal for this race was to run it strictly by RPE, not even to display HR or pace on the Garmin, and see how well I did in my usual strategy of gradually building HR. Well, in short, I nailed it! It's pretty amazing to consider the intelligence of the body itself. I was paying close attention to how I felt throughout, and the body knew just what I wanted. This is the first race in which I was certain that I performed my absolute best.

Never walk the course, much less jog any part of it, with my wallet in my pocket!

By the end of the race, the wind had picked up even more, so the main thing was to get out of my sweaty clothes & into warm dry ones. For once I had brought enough changes of shoes & socks. Drank my recovery drink, ate 1/2 Hammer Recovery bar plus a banana, apple, & 1/2 pb bagel. Walked around a bit, but mostly sought shelter. Lay on the grass to roll & stretch. Looking at the layered clouds scudding overhead, I was reassured that the power of the earth is great enough to survive humanity's foolishness.(Really, these stretching interludes might be the best part of the day!)


Just the point at which I am in my training. Age, speed, & stamina.


So here are the 2 best parts of the day, other than totally achieving my goal and also the gift of cosmic understanding:
By a wondrous happenstance, someone found my wallet, which had bounced out of my pocket somewhere on that great big course, saving me the headache of replacing drivers' license, credit cards, etc. I never even knew it was lost.
One of the Syracuse women, who had just turned 60 and is much much faster than me, nevertheless told me that she wants to be like me. I can only take that to mean that by persisting in running at my age I am inspiring other women. That humbles me.