Why not?

I've decided one of my life mottos is "why not?" I kind of look at it as my own type of YOLO. You only live once so why not?  Well this weekend was my first college track meet.  I was signed up to run the 800 and the 10k.  Yes, the 10k.  A couple weeks ago my coach jokingly said he would put me in the 10k, and I said ok why not?  He was surprised by my answer, but he signed me up.  As I thought about the race over the past couple of weeks, I don't think it hit me that I had signed up to race 6.2 miles on the track aka 25 laps.  So the day finally came. We met up around 8:30 Saturday morning to drive to LA.  We got there around 2 o'clock and I raced the 800 at 3. While warming up it decided to start raining and it didn't let up the rest of the day.  I hopped on the track and raced my 800.  Definitely didn't feel as good as it did in high school, but I also haven't been training very hard/at all. I did somehow still manage a decent time of 2:25.  My legs were cooked and I was drenched.  I got some warm clothes on and headed back up to the tent...no cool down, no stretching. Super smart, I know. We sat in the cold rain the rest of the day, watching and cheering for our teammates in the multiple events.  Coach bought pizza and I had a couple slices - bad idea.  We slipped into the locker room for a little bit to dry off and get warm.  It was like heaven in there.  The hand dryers were life savers.  

10pm was finally starting to roll around, which meant 10k time. Me, billie and sara were anything but excited for this race.  We were wet, cold, tired and not ready at all to race 25 laps.  We made a deal, to just easy run the race and not even push it till the last mile (I should've known that wasn't going to happen).  We started a little warm up and our energy levels were up in a matter of minutes.  We were laughing, singing, joking around and excited to run this race.  Still unsure about the thought of 25 laps, but we were at least excited to be out in the rain running. I remember thinking at this point "I don't even remember the last time I ran 6 miles in one day." When I say I haven't been training I mean it. But we got on the line anyways with the other 63 crazy boys and girls and the gun went off.  Me and the girls quickly found each other and ran as a pack for awhile.  Our plan didn't really lay out how we were thinking though. Our first 3 miles were 6:30 pace, but at that point I felt good. Throughout those miles we were talking and laughing.  There was actually this girl, Karen, right behind us who was being cheered for everywhere, so I said "Karen, you sure are popular around here!"  No response from Karen.  A few laps later I said again "I wish my name was Karen" still no response from Karen. Oh well. I don't think she liked how chill me and billie were treating the race the first few miles.  Anyways after mile three billie dropped me and I started dying.  Hardcore. My first mistake was running in spikes.  I can't even explain the amount of pain my calves were in the second half of the race.  Second mistake was eating that dang pizza.  My stomach was ripped to shreds and it was not fun. Let's just say I had MAJOR thoughts of dropping out, but I knew I could do hard things so I pushed through.  I really did want to go faster, but it legit wasn't possible.  I finished with a decent time of 40:20 and Im not even mad.  If im being real, my goal was to finish and I did, so I'm happy.  I was soaked and in a lot of pain, but somehow it was fun and I want to do it again.  Don't ask me why, but us runners are sometimes crazy like that.  Super glad I took the opportunity to do something as insane as a 10k on the track.  Who would've ever thought, Laynee Wells, 800 runner, to be racing the 10k.  Always up for a new challenge so why not?

We were waiting for that tent to rip all day, but it never did. 

Heaven. These dryers saved our butts. 

We stood in front of these for at least 30 minutes.  

A bunch of noobs. 

Just a few suspicious looking hooded teenage girls walking the streets of california at 1 am. 

After the meet, we drove back to the hotel and got there around midnight.  We all took some nice hot showers and unloaded all of our wet, smelly clothes from the day.  We were starving and after running that ridiculous race we thought we deserved some good food, so we walked a block or two to Denny's.  It was surprisingly busy for 2 am.  I ordered a turkey sandwich, fries and an oreo milkshake and it hit the spot.  We chilled for a while, walked back to the hotel, and we had the idea to do an all nighter, but it didn't completely happen.  We made a music video for Isabelle's insta story and then we talked for a little bit.  Around 5 am we all kinda dozed off and slept for about an hour until we had to pack up and leave for St. George. I slept thee entire way home from California. Quickest drive ever. 

Once I got home I finished my 5 page paper and I am now officially on spring break!!! To celebrate Traci and Emily's birthday we had some goodies at Lauri's house and got to spend some time with the cousins.  I took Mae outside to smell the flowers and she was so beyond excited to put them in her hair. Love it when traci's family comes down. 

She's the cutest. 

Life's great, but my calves are still crying and I can tell they will be for a few days. 

Totally worth it.