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I have nothing to say.

you know, in retrospect, I was a bit burned out after the Colorado Relay. I needed a break.

Don't get me wrong - I love that run. I loved doing it with my people -- my Outlaw people -- and I love Colorado. Even so, I came away feeling tired. Not from lack of sleep - in fact, my relay teammates will tell you that I am a champion sleeper (I set a personal record in hours of sleep I scrounged during this relay).

No, I felt tired in a different way, and I may have thrown a tantrum about running. 2 legs topping out over 10,000 feet in questionable weather can do that to my psyche - which I find interesting to know. My second leg, clearing Vail Pass, was in the dark, and I left it feeling bruised and abused. And a little freaked out -- the dreaded ITB issue seemed to return.

The 3rd leg of the Colorado Relay, however, restored my faith in the world. I ran down the highway in the dim morning light - a leg with a net downhill for a change - and turned a corner to Glenwood Canyon. There I was greeted with the sight of the Colorado River in all it's glorious serenity. Dawn was breaking in Glenwood Canyon, and I had it all to myself.

I am so lucky!

To that point I'd run in slush, in the cold, in the dark, in the rain, and up hills with no oxygen. I was generally feeling poopy and hateful. So this last run changed my whole outlook. This gorgeous canyon with a vast, green, primordial river silently and peacefully doing its thing was really quite special. Just me, the canyon, and the Colorado river in the morning light. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been a wildlife experience...

...which is why I laughed out loud when I played chicken with a Racoon. Me and a racoon on the trail, and nobody else. I walked to him, he walked to me. I ran to him, he ran away.

I win!

but enough about that. this post is not about the Long Gone Colorado Relay, it's about singing the praises of the Speedo Endurance Fabric and the Suit That Would Not Die.

I have decided that swimming would not be so gear intensive a sport, were it not for the swimsuit factor. Normal swimsuits will last 2, maybe 3 months with good care. If I swim 2 to 3 times a week, I can count on seeing buttcrack through the back of a normal suit within 2 months. And these are good swimsuits made by real swim companies. A couple years ago, a swim mate told me about Speedo Endurance fabric, and said that while expensive, the suit lasts a really long time. At the time, the only Endurance suits were either black or blue, and came in one standard cut.

Some time early last year, I forgot my swimsuit for a scheduled swim. At some other time in my life, I might have taken this as a sign that I wouldn't get a swim that day, but I am notoriously stubborn about my training, and handy with a credit card. Plus, my gym is right next door to a decent sporting good shop. I took a chance that they might have something I need, and lo - they had a suit in my size. It was a hideous color (blue), but it was endurance fabric, and it was on sale for $35. Those endurance suits are usually quite expensive, so $35 was a steal. I took it as a sign that I should do my swim. I bought it, though I detested it, and wore it for that swim.

I'm of the opinion that the most flattering swimsuit color on me is black - because it's slimming. When I'm practically naked, I want a slimming color. The blue seemed like a hard, cold color. Unfriendly. I know Larisa says cold colors are best for me, but this is a swimsuit. I don't want to feel naked and cold. I want to feel slim and um, swimworthy.

Since it was not my favourite color (and it was so cheap to begin with) I intentionally tried to wear it out. I mean I really tried. I'm not kidding. I tried to kill that suit. Given my history with swimsuits I thought it would last 6 months, tops. I took it with me to outside pools, inside pools. I took it travelling. I took it to hot tubs where I thought the water was so harsh the fabric should melt. I wore it for every swim at Master's for over a year - that's 2 to 3 swims a week - and I rarely rinsed it. It was saturated with pool chemistry. I spun it in the auto spinner after every wear. It would go from pool, to spinner, to car - where it would sit and dry out - and back to the pool. That suit would not die. That cold, horrible, unfriendly blue suit could not be killed.

After a time I grew to feel less animosity about the color. I think it was something about swimming so hard in master's every morning that gave me a sense of pride in my swimming in general, and I warmed to the suit. It became less of the detested suit I wanted to kill, and more the suit I preferred for my morning swim.

Then, last week, I accidentally caught it in the lid of the spinner, which made a horrible noise. I removed the suit and it looked OK, just a little gnarled. It wasn't until the next swim that I discovered that the spinner had actually torn (or at the very least, weakened) the fabric in an inopportune place, and I put my thumb through it this morning.

I'm actually depressed now, that I killed the suit. On the plus side, I'm looking at Speedo's website and I see that they have new endurance suits - in nicer fabrics, and pretty patterns, and perhaps slightly more flattering cuts. So I'm hopeful I can replace old blue with something better.

But this blog post isn't about the swimsuit I tried to kill, it's about the Duke City Marathon! I ran half of it yesterday - and I had a PR! A PR people! I did it in 2:04:52, which is about 3 minutes faster than my Chips And Salsa PR from last year. Woo Woo! I had been traveling for 2 days before that, so I was really not sure I could pull a good time -- horrible food, lousy sleep, all of the usual crap that comes with travelling...But I did. And I'm happy. And a little sore. I felt like crap for the first half of the race, my stomach was not happy. I didn't feel I was working hard, I felt like it was just a goof off, a training run.

I looked at my watch at the turnaround and was pleasantly surprised to see myself at a little over 1:03. Dude - if I can keep this up, I'll be able to do well!

So I did.

And I had a gallon in the tank for the last 5K - which really blew my mind. I passed more people in the last 5 miles than I'd passed all day. Truly, for the first half, most were passing me! So yeah - I was real happy when I crossed the line at 2:05.

But this blog post isn't about my Half Mary PR, no. It's about the race I sorta thought I would never go back to do.

Yes, it's true: I signed up for SoMa at the last minute. I'm going back. My plans aren't ambitious, I am signed up for the Quarter. No, no burning ambition to show that race who's boss. My goal is to have a good race. Good.

Awesome is also acceptable.

I'll have more to say later.