Going into my 3rd week of travel in a row, I flew into Albuquerque, arriving around noon on Friday. Deb picked me up and we went straight to packet pickup after checking into the hotel. We had a quiet evening and got to bed pretty early.
When I woke up - well before my alarm, thanks to the time zone change - 13.1 miles was seriously the last thing I wanted to do. I got up though, got dressed and ate some breakfast at the hotel. We drove to the race start, still dreading what was to come.
Did I mentioned I hadn't really trained? I've been doing Orangetheory which includes a good amount of time on the treadmill, but that's about it. I've really been focusing on swim training for the Bay Swim that's coming up.
Once the race started, I got into an easy jog and trudged along. This was a really small race, much smaller than I had anticipated, and suddenly thoughts of being DFL (dead f'ing last) popped into my mind. I glanced around and noticed a few others going a similar pace, some slightly faster and some slightly slower. I actually wish I had a pocket or something to carry my phone because the course was really pretty and I would have liked to capture a photo or two.
I really do love traveling for races like this because it's such a good way to see new places. The race took us all through Albuquerque, over the Rio Grande River, through some fields and a bunch of interesting neighborhoods. I jogged when I could walked when I wanted to. A few times I would spot somebody ahead of me and make a concerted effort to catch up. Eventually there were 5 of us, pretty well spaced out, bringing up the rear (though I *know* there were more people behind me and think they turned off a the 10K race for a quicker route to the finish). We kept plugging along, all of us in a solid walk by this point, ticking off the miles one at a time.
Finally, I was in the service road leading up to the finish. The time limit for the race was 3.5 hours and I jogged across the finish line with 15 seconds to spare! Though, they did let the woman behind me finish as well. Then there was the LONG walk to the shuttle bus back to the car. And when I say long... I mean a full mile. My legs did not like that! But we did it, albeit with some chaffing...
We rewarded ourselves with a massage that afternoon, dinner in downtown Albuquerque and then had another early evening. Facials were on tap for Sunday morning, and we enjoyed a nice dip in the hot tub at the spa before heading out on a little hike at the Petroglyph National Monument.
And then you know I can't visit a new state without visiting a local winery! A busy day for sure, and I slept well before the long travel day home. Phew... This ended 3 straight weekends of travel and I was happy to be back in my own bed!
