Pick Your Poison

First official OUSER race of the year, PYP located at Horseshoe Valleys. I had run a 5Peaks half Marathon there in 2009 so I had a mental image of what the course would entail...and what I thought was wrong.Seems that I remember a flatter race at ski resort... slightly delusional. So either the 5peaks course avoided hills or PYP took advantage of all the hills. Either way today was rather uphill. I honestly do not recall a race where I walked so many uphills.

Coming into the race I was going on little sleep for several days, plus I actually sprained my ankle 10 days ago and it is still rather swollen. So my expectations were minimal. My race plan which I developed as I was running the first few kilometres was to run hard the first loop and try not to die the second. This required all my double caffeine gels. I am still feeling jumpy and irritable. I didn't want to do it but I kept on thinking about how nice the ground looked for a nap. Despite the endless uphills and a tad less single track than I like, I did like the course.

There was some upsetedness I heard about people getting lost, but honestly I had no trouble. I was upset that the race director felt it was not important to wear a helmet  while ridding a MTN bike around the course...and my other major beef is kinda self centred. There were no awards/door prises.  I like awards/ door prises. Admittedly the race swag for everybody was a jar of honey, a shirt and a pair of socks which is one of the most impressive handouts I have gotten, but even if I am not an award winner I like feeling the joy with the winner.

Today I was not a award winner.  I think I was fifth female, and tenth overall with a time of around 2:35ish. . I also got a new blister on my left foot.