A travers Romanel 2012

Husband, Son 2 and I were all three signed up for last Friday evening's 10K until we realized they had a previous engagement. Two of the Oklahoma State students staying with us this month went with me instead. Neighbor gave us a ride to Romanel and we milled around with the other runners till race time. We were fortunate with the weather, just like last year. I had looked up my time from last year, so that's what I was shooting for. I ran the first of the three laps right on target, but knew it would be difficult to keep up the pace. Even though I was 30 seconds slower on the second lap, I caught up with the same young woman on the downhill portion of the course as I had passed the first time around. I told her to lean into the slope to gain ground. She followed my advice and was able to keep up with me. I didn't catch up with her on my third and slowest lap, but saw her overtake two other women in the distance. At the finish line she came up to me to thank me for the tip. For me, that made up for being so much slower than last year.

The two Okies hadn't really known what to expect and hadn't trained for the run, but were pleased with their Swiss racing experience. By the next morning I was pleased with my race too, because I realized I had looked up the wrong race results for last year. Not only was I only 6 seconds off last year's time, but I also placed second in my age group!

Gotta run...