As I started to write this blog on the start of my 2007 track season, I could not help feeling shocked that it is actually 2007.  The last three years have flown by!   When I left Athens at the end of the 2004 Olympic Games, I remember sitting wide awake on 2 am flight from Athens to Frankfurt while everyone else around me caught some sleep.  I was too excited to sleep.  I had not run as well as I had hoped in my race, but I was already thinking about the 2005 track season and setting new goals for myself.  

Almost three years have passed since that night.  Unfortunately, I have faced some obstacles on the way to achieving those goals, but I am determined that this year will be different.  I am going to reach those goals that I set in 2004!

My first two track races of the season were a 5k at the Mt. Sac Relays and a 10k at the Cardinal Invitational.  Neither went quite as well as I had hoped, but I learned from the experiences.  At Mt. Sac, I got a little carried away during the first 2k and went out too hard.  That made the last 3k of the race quite painful, but I know that someday I am going to get strong enough to carry that pace for the full race distance.  I will have a few more chances to run in competitive 5ks during the summer and I am excited to lower my PR in the upcoming months.

At the Cardinal Invitational, I wanted to run the World Championship standard (31:40) or the Olympic Games standard (31:45).  I was under the Olympic Games standard for the first half, but once again, I faded over the second half of the race.  Looking back on it, I think that I could have run faster that night if I had not been so focused on achieving the standards, but I am glad that I went after the fast time. 

My next race will be as a member of the US team for the Bolder Boulder 10k.  I am excited for this event because it is one of the rare opportunities that distance runners have to compete as a team.  My teammates on the US team will be Elva Dryer (the 2005 Bolder Boulder champion) and Sara Slattery (the 2006 champion).  We will compete against other international teams and we will be scored cross-country style with points awarded on the basis of finishing place. The team with the lowest score for all three runners is the winner.   Over the years, I have heard countless runners (both elite and recreational) rave about this race.  Boulder must have the largest and most enthusiastic running community in the world, so I feel lucky to race there this year.

After Bolder Boulder, the big focus will be track nationals in Indianapolis (and another chance to go after the World Championship standard in the 10k!)  Just thinking about these races has gotten me energized for tomorrow’s workout!