I did it

I finished the Mt. Evans Ascent in 3:27. Yahoo!!!!!!!!! It is over!!!!!!!!!

I was 20th out of 26 women in my age group, which is hardly all that impressive. But considering neither hills nor altitude is my strong point, I am thrilled. Of course that begs the question of why I sign up for races like this. To miss an entire month's sleep worrying about something ultimately unimportant, of course. To be able to eat cookies like a pig and drink like a fish for a few days with less guilt that normal. Duh.

Here are my official results, taken from the official results page:

PLACE: 286 (out of 374)
BIB: 345
DIV: F4044
DIVPLC: 20
GUN TIME: 3:27:26
NET TIME: 3:27:04
PACE: 14:17
AGE: 41
SEX: F
SEXPLC: 83 (out of 127)
CITY: Colorado Springs
STATE: CO
EVENT: MT. EVANS ASCENT

In terms of my overall place this is one of my worst finishes ever. But I feel great. My running partner Scoop finished 9 minutes ahead of me and did much better overall in the standings. However, she puked at the end of the race and felt generally awful for quite a while. I felt great pretty much the whole time and drank copiously the rest of the day. So which is better?

Now I need to figure out my next pursuit. Of course, first and foremost is...

MY DISSERTATION. I am determined to defend by the middle of September so I can go to Phoenix Rising Yoga therapy training in Oakland from Sept 19-22nd and then take a quick vacation before I start internship on the 29th. That means I need to get writing. Like, tomorrow.
But I need to come up with other athletic goals as well. I just need to realize that I can only give top mental priority to one thing and that needs to be the Finding Om writeup. I may still choose to train for the Portland marathon on Oct 5th, or for any other races that strike my fancy, but it will need to be done with the understanding that the mental energy I would usually put into caring about my finishing time needs to be funnelled into caring about the finishing time for my dissertation.

I did it. I finished Mt. Evans. Hooray for me.

Crazy things that I have done:

Ridden my bicycle from St. Augustine Florida to San Diego, CA

Trekked to Mt. Everest Base camp

15 marathons, 5 above sea level

Many half marathons, including Georgetown to Idaho Springs, the Steamboat Springs half marathon and the Buena Vista Color Run

Tons of shorter races, including a 3rd place overall finish in a 10 mile trail race on the north shore of Oahu last summer where there were only 15 women overall. Hey, it's all about who shows up!

Pikes Peak Ascent

Mt Evans Ascent

Breck Crest Mountain Marathon (3 times, with this year's race on the calendar)

Leadville Heavy Half marathon

a bunch of duathlons and one triathlon (18 years ago!)

trained for a bodybuilding competition (but never competed)

And I'm not tired yet!