I think I used up all my recap writing juices on recounting my Hood to Coast experience, so this will be to the point. The Race: St. Charles Children's Home 5K put on by the Running Nuns (Seriously they run with the kids in their habits, its awesome.) Every Labor Day. It's a great race for a great cause with lots of post race food. One of my favorites and one I've been running since 2003.

The Weather: Pouring Rain (Until one of the priest said an opening prayer after the national anthem and asked God to stop the rain and prayed for sunshine...and it happened!?!)

Those pants are usually light gray. He was soaked. But happy as a clam.

The Runner (Me): In total denial about how sick I was. Tried to stop the onset of a cold by resting all day Saturday and Sunday. I drank tons of Airborne and Emergency and Nuun and ginger tea. I popped zinc and Vitamin D. I ate kale and red pepper and raw garlic. But on Monday morning I was still sick. At the beginning of the week I believed I was capable of running a sub 20 minute 5K. I still believe that's possible. In fact I'm not the only one, my track coach believes it too and has been telling me it's possible for the past few months. I just didn't believe it until I ran Hood to Coast and discovered the mantra: "She believed she could so she did," thanks to Catey. But I knew a sub 20 wasn't possible if I wasn't feeling 100%. My sore throat and congested sinuses told me I didn't feel 100%. So I went into the race wanting to run as fast as I could.

The Field: Freaking fast. A couple Kenyans showed up along with NH top female marathoner, Heidi Westover. The first female finished in 16:51 and the top four females were all under 18 minutes.

The Warmup: I ran two miles in pouring rain through ankle deep puddles. Soaked before the race even started. Family also soaked...but still smiling.

The Start: Priest prays. Rain stops. Hallelujah.

The Splits: Mile one in 6:31. Felt strong but tried to keep the pace reigned in. It was too easy to get sucked out with the fast field. Mile two 6:38 a slight hill and by the end of this mile I felt fatigued. My breathing was even but my body just felt...dead. Mile three 6:33. I pushed hard in the last mile. I imagined a power bridge with a half mile to go and picked up the pace a little more. But then there was this incredibly deceiving turn into a parking lot for the finish. Finish time: 20:22 for a new PR.

I need to learn to get my hips over my knees. I have a tendency to lean back when I'm tired.

14th female overall. Third in my age group.

The Take Away: And this is where I'll slow down a bit, because even though I didn't reach my goal of breaking the 20 minute mark there's bigger news: I've improved my 5K time by TWO minutes since April. TWO minutes. That's a lot in 5K-speak.

April 8th 22:25

June 22nd 21:16

September 2nd 20:22

I've never seen improvement like this before. I've always hovered in the 22-23 minute range when it comes to the 5K. But my training this year has been different than any other training I've done. It is more focused and smarter. The focus has been on the hard effort workouts: tempo, track, long runs and increased weekly mileage. And the smarter comes from knowing the paces that I need to train at in order to run the times I want to run.

Just yesterday, as I was in the hardest part of my tempo run, I thought: this is where I earn the race I want. In the past I've always gone into races "hoping" for certain times. Never really sure if it was going to happen. Now I know that I have to work for the times I want. I can't just "hope" they happen. And the work is done in my weekly runs. The "work" can be a little scary. But without the work I can't possibly be confident come race day. I know that a sub 20 minute 5K is possible, its only a matter of time.