After my first race, this goal seamed feasible. However, as I mentioned before, my calf got a little messed up throughout the season so I had some not so good races. Luckily, the coaches also look at the whole season, not just the last race when picking the teams. We had two races before Boise, Cottonwood and Murray. Yes, the Cottonwood race is the race where I barfed, but also happened to run a PR. The Murray race was difficult and I ran my second slowest time of the season at it. After the Murray race I started to freak out and cry because I wanted to go to Boise THAT BAD. My teammates all assured me that I would still get to go, but what do they know.
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| Flyer for Bob Firman! Photo Courtesy of: RunnerSpace |
As you can guess I was bummed because I knew that I was not in the top fourteen after the Murray race. However, not everybody understands the concept of respecting other people's feelings so my teammate started to gloat. Thanks for that. No worries, my dreams aren't being crushed right now.
My coach announced the teams going to Boise the next day at practice and as you know, I was not on the list, but what would the point of this story be if I didn't go? That's right, there would be no point. All my coaches told me that if I worked really hard in the workouts that week then I would get to go. I was elated. And the best part was that the workout that week was four-hundreds. My favorite!
In the workout, I ran each interval close to twenty seconds faster than the last time we had done this workout. For you non-runners out there, this was pretty amazing for me! The goal was to do twenty four-hundreds, but with my pesky calf getting in the way I only ended up doing sixteen.
After I crossed the finish line, I would die for a brief couple of seconds before I had to jog back over to the start and get ready for the next minute and a half of pain. After the tenth one, I started off somewhat tired and ended more tired. It paid off in the end though.
Steve came up behind me and said oh so casually, "If you keep running like this, you're gonna make me take you to Boise."
YES! YES! YES!
Of course, I just responded by smiling and probably mumbling some kind of appreciative word or phrase.
After the twelfth interval, I fell over the line and could not breathe. I just could not catch my breath no matter what. Obviously, I started to cry a little because, you know, I was in pain and all. Steve told me as I was crossing the finish line and walked off to the side that I got to go to Bob Firman!!!!!!! (excuse my overuse of exclamation points)
Wahoooo!
My friend was concerned that I was wheezing and crying so she came over. I somehow managed to tell her that Steve said I got to go, so we were all quite happy. My other coaches were concerned about me because I don't cry all that often and they knew my calves had been wonky. Steve assured them that they were "happy" tears, even though it was partially because I couldn't breathe. They looked at me and asked if this was true. Since I tend to hide from the truth, I nodded my head in response.
After this interval, I did every other interval because of my challenges with breathing. After the workout, we were all sitting on the grass before cooling down. Liza asked me if Steve said anything about Bob Firman to me. I nodded my head and because I'm apparently more emotional this year (some of my friends know what I mean, everyone else just ignore this - you will never understand), I started to tear up.
"You get to go?"
*head nod*
"Really? Oh, Camille!" Apparently my tears are cute to some people.
I was SO happy! I honestly cannot describe to you the happiness I felt in that moment. Even though I was in so much pain, it all seemed worth it. I knew I deserved this and I felt like my season was worth it now.
I will tell all of my adoring fans out there who read my blog posts around their dinner table about the actual race and the journey getting there in my next post. It was quite exciting.
Until then....
Ciao
Camille
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