ZOOMA

I had signed up to run the ZOOMA half-marathon a few weeks ago because I thought we had a GOTR team. Turns out we did not. We were desperately trying to recruit volunteers for a water stop (which we did!) but no running team. Several of our board members were running, which was great & even greater than I ran into all of them.

I had no goals for this one, other than hoping my foot would hold up. I ran the 1st half with a friend who is pregnant with twins & another new friend who was running her very first half marathon. It was slow, but it was fun & that's just what I needed. At the turn around (near the field with the running horses - stunning to see that) I picked up the pace & ran the 2nd half about 20 minutes faster than the 1st. Overall time was 2:26 (my PR for a 1/2 is 2:01) so while I was far off from that, my foot held up and I had a good time. My favorite song of all time was also playing when I crossed the finish. I waited at the end to cheer on my friends I had run with earlier. Also ran into a long-time friend, had free cupcakes that my sister was handing out (Hill Country Cupcakes), and iced my foot all the way home.

Felt really great all afternoon, but the foot pain started in late day on Sunday. It hurts in a different place than it normally does, and website research is saying it's a stress fracture, which I refuse to believe. I'll ice it again today, take some anti-inflamatories & hope for the best.

Overall take on ZOOMA? I can see why having a race out at Lost Pines is a good idea - it's isolated, the crowds can take up virtually the entire property, it's beautiful, etc. But it's also HILLY. Parking was a mess. Shuttles from the airport, unclear directions on where volunteers can park or where they should go, lost shuttle drivers... In retrospect it wasn't as bad as it seemed when in the moment, but it was certainly an exercise in patience.