top of the hill, top of the world

the world looks sweet from up here. top of the hill, top of the world! over the moon, king of the world, bouncing off the walls. they're all terms to describe how i'm feeling this morning.

first things first, though. saturday dawned with a 20 miler on the plate. i was feeling pretty good after the workout on thursday, so, knowing that there are some hills in the race course for july's marathon, i opted to pick a hard route for the long run. i drove out on to the route and stashed some bottles of water and cytomax, drove back home and headed out the door.

i started out running the surface streets to hook up with the aliso creek bike trail at sheep hill park. four miles down and i was starting to warm up. i dropped onto the trail right in the middle of a new tnt training group's first run. i ended up pacing with a lady that was running solo and found out that she was training for a race in september and running for her two year old daughter who'd be diagnosed with leukemia. it's one thing to run for the charity, it's another to run for a family member. i wished her well and good luck as the team turned around near mile six.

i dropped into aliso creek canyon and ran past the trailhead for wood canyon to pick up some additional miles. i turned around at mile 10 and turned onto the wood canyon trail at mile 11. i'd come over some slight hills, but the turn around point marked the low point of the run. the last 10 were going to be hard, over some really tough hills. i mentally prepared myself and cruised up the trail and into the wilderness park.

by mile 14, i was at the top of cholla hill at the back of the wilderness park. it had been the hardest mile of the run, up steep switchbacks, climbing just over 400'. beat, sure, but at the highest point of the run and ready to start my descent back home. a quick jog into the housing community and i was refueling with stashed bottles. i rolled over the next couple hills and worked my way back home on surface streets. i fluctuated between fatigue and a maintainable pace. the remaining hills were hard, but the downhill on the backsides allowed me the recovery i needed.

at 20 miles on the nose, i turned the corner onto our street and rolled to a stop at the front door at 20.12. 2:52:39 - a comfortable 8:34 pace, and a successful arrival at the top of the week's training hill.

so, the top of the hill had me elated to have completed a couple hard runs and mentally excited for today's 5k. i warmed up at the start of the race with about a mile of light jogging, a mile of marathon pace and then about a half mile of fartlek type drills. the quads and calves were a little sluggish, but feeling warm by the time i finished. i hopped into the queue and got ready.

the horn sounded and we were off. i went out fast, and quickly passed the slower folks that had ignored the instructions to move to the rear. no offense to the slower runners, of course, but i just wish the walkers wouldn't line up at the front. anyway, i went out fast and tried to get into a rhythm. i concentrated on form and turn over and breathing. mile one came and i saw 6:32 on the watch. i wasn't sure if that was too fast, or not fast enough.

there were some nice downhills early in the race, but mile two was at the top of a small rise. 12:55. ooh, a negative split! i rounded the corner just behind the marker and looked up the big hill in the race. i needed to keep the strong pace up and over that if i was going to break my goal time. i pushed hard, continued to focus on form and breathing and FLEW past people going up the quarter mile hill. when it leveled out, i figured there was about a half mile to go and i needed to really pour it on if i was going to make up any time i'd lost on the hill.

i ran my legs off as the hill crested and we started back downhill to the finish. my quads were starting to make themselves known, but nothing that was going to slow me down before the finish. heading down the finishing hill, i saw the three mile marker, checked my watch and saw it tick over to 19 minutes. 30 seconds to the marker and then 30 seconds to the finish? no problem. i picked it up to a near sprint and flew through the finishing chute as my watch ticked to 19:57.

sub 20. and it's got me on top of the world. thanks to everyone's encouragement and kind words this past week. you guys really boosted my confidence to get pass this milestone!