Oiselle Totally Trials Entry

When I heard about the Totally Trails contest that Oiselle was running, I knew that I needed to apply. The olympic trials in Eugene...Sign me up! I called up my coworker/running buddy and said, "I just heard about the best contest ever and we need to apply for it." Her reply was "oh my gosh, yes we need to apply that would be the best experience." 

So with the no brainer decision to apply out of the way, we needed to come up with a creative application. We talked and talked about it while running our weekly track workouts together. We decided we wanted to be funny and involve our other totally ninja triple jumping coworker Amanda. Yes, Amanda it is that Amanda. The US Indoor and Outdoor National Champion!

If you haven't had the chance to meet her, you are missing out! She is the nicest, friendliest, most down to earth, wicked smart person that I know. Yeah, she has a Ph.D. She is SMART. One more thing she can jump far. I sent her a text and said Tsmocks (that is what we call her), we need your assistance winning the chance of a lifetime trip to go watch the olympic trials. 

Of course, she wanted to help. So we met her at the track and filmed our application. We laughed so hard while filming that we had a hard time getting any real clips. Amanda had so much patience when trying to help two distance runners try to triple jump...Let me tell you triple jumping is hard. Hop, step and then jump...that is way to many things to try and remember. I just wanted to put one foot in front of the other at a consistent pace.

Without further ado...here it is our Oiselle Totally Trials Entry:

The Track

I freaking love the track! This Spring, I started doing track workouts again. It had been a long time since I had spent any time on the track. About a month ago, I started coaching one of my friends so I have been hitting the track with her on a weekly basis. 

Running fast is hard but it also feels so good to be flying around the track. I heart it!

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet up with Amanda at the track. She is one amazing athlete and person! 

We weren't going to do our workouts together. We have very different workouts. I can't imagine running as fast or jumping as far as her and she can't imagine running around the track a bazillion times (okay, maybe a bazillion is an exaggeration) like me.  I was there to get a quick video of one of her jumps and, of course, run a bunch of laps around the track. 

I didn't get to my workout until she was done with her's because I ended up watching all of her jumps. I can't describe how amazing it was to watch that caliper of athlete in action. It made me want to train harder...I know I will never be at that level but watching her made me want to become the best me possible. Thanks Amanda! 

I realized that day how much I miss track and field. I loved track meets in college.

A New PR...

I ran my first 25k trail race thus I set a PR. Leading up to the Trail Mix race, I was on the fence about racing. My runs have been less than stellar lately so I knew there would be no fast time or placing but a running buddy convince me to do it. Thanks running buddy for your love of trails and helping me to see how fun they can be.

Online registration closed at 11:59pm on Thursday for the Saturday race. At 11:45pm, I was still hemming and hawing over whether or not to run since I wasn't in top shape...yada yada yada...excuses. The clock turned over to 11:50pm, ok I decided to register. I raced through the registration process and finished at 11:55pm...Yeah, 4 min to spare.

My trail racing buddy told me don't start too fast. "Everyone starts fast and dies on the second loop" she said. Okay, start slow. So I started with a friend at the back of the pack. We weaved our way through other runners for the first couple miles running 9 min miles. I am trying to hold back but there are so many people in front of me. I slowly start to slip away from my friend. She yell that she is just going to let me go or she will blow up on the second lap. I think about staying with her an following my other experienced trail running friend's advice but I have never been good at following advice.

I picked up the pace a little and found myself passing people. From that point on, I wasn't passed by any one running the 25k. I did get passed by the men that were leading the 50k. The race was pretty uneventful from that point to the end. I was running by myself and occasionally passing people.

It was so fun running the 25k trail race, I can't wait for my next one. I think I want to try a 50k.

In other news, I just discovered the most awesome running apparel company ever. Oiselle! If you haven't checked out their apparel you absolutely need to head over to their website right now. Stop reading this post and go there now. You will love it. I can't stop reading their blog it is so funny and entertaining! What an amazing crew of women. Also you need to follow them on Twitter. Believe me. You won't be disappointed. These are some funny ladies! They also have some really amazing runners representing their brand. You should also read about them.