Sunday, June 27, 2010

Calico 1/2 Slammer in da Hooooouse!

CALICO SLAM SERIES
Inspired by the Grand Slam of Ultra Running, which is the completion of the 4 premier 100 miler events in the country in one year, the Calico Slam will recognize runners completing multiple Calico Racing events.

Slammers must complete 4 Calico Racing events in any given 12 consecutive month period. Runners may choose among all Calico Racing events which ones they plan to run.

Calico 1/2 Slam: The Calico 1/2 Slam honors runners who complete the 1/2 Marathon race distance at 4 Calico Races in any given consecutive 12 month period.

Copyright & copy; 2007, Joyce Forier and Calico Racing, LLC. All rights reserved.


I've spent months and weeks preparing for this. Questioning all the time if I would do it. The reasoning behind finishing my Calico 1/2 Slam with 'Running With the Devil" was that Lovell Canyon in April was #3. I have to do 4. The only other options for #4 would have been the Devil in June, ET in August, Hoover Dam in October, or Angel (2011).

ET - it's a midnight race and I never have anyone who wants to run with me. I didn't feel comfortable being out in Rachel, NV all alone in the middle of the dark desert.

Angel (2011) - wait a whole year to finish?? yeah right.

Hoover Dam or Devil?? ..... Well Hoover Dam is so long away, and I still have my base from doing the other 3 I've done. So Devil it was!!

Today I finished that Calico 1/2 Slam!! I pushed myself to new limits of heat running and conquered this awesome Running With the Devil race!! And I finished my 1/2 slam in half the time alotted!

Something that was really cool for this new half marathoner was being able to compare my ability on the same exact course 6 months apart. I figured Angel had kicked my butt in January, but I have obviously progressed since then. However, with the heat factored in, I thought it would kick my butt once again. It didn't! I felt great the whole time. I did walk, a lot more than I would have liked, but isn't that always the case? On the course I said to myself "I'm walking more than I really wanted to... oh who am I kidding, I always walk alot! This is normal."

So while out there trying to take my mind off the heat, I started looking at the rest of the year and the things I already have lined up. And I decided that I want to be able to run without walking so much. Which means I need to go back to the drawing board. Basically, I'm going to go back 5k training but start pushing faster, harder, and stop taking walk breaks. I would really like to come in top 3 in my age group at a 5k and not due to a lack of runners in the race. We'll see if I have time to train for that too. I still do have to keep my endurance up for Silverman... oh yeah... that! I still haven't blogged about that! It's special enough to have it's own blog post, so that info is sure to come soon!

I'll add RWD pix when I figure out how to get them off my camera's memory. Anyone seen my camera USB cord???

3 comments:

robison52 said...

Congrats on running a fine race and in the HEAT too! I might try doing a slammer next year, this year I'm focused on the LVTC Competition Series, the next race in the series is the 4 mile Notch Run at Lee Canyon on July 17th.

I did run the 50k Lovell Canyon Race last April and the event was well directed and planned! I'd be hard pressed to determine which Calico races to choose next year!?!

Val said...

I really wish I had gotten a chance to see you at Lovell! Congrats on that awesome completion!

Notch run at Lee Canyon??? That sounds like a beautiful course! Can anyone do their races? I know me and rick did one last year, but I'm not sure how all their races work.

You should SO go for a slam of some sort!! Check out the site and see all the options. Being the awesome runner you are, you have so many choices!

Can you believe.... I'm thinking about marathon!

Jrsygurl4life said...

Congrats on running that race in the HEAT! I can't even imagine running right now (yeah, cause I'm pregnant but its soo hot, too).

You better find that camera usb cord :)