5k tomorrow morning!

Apparently I am running the Brookline Breeze 5k tomorrow morning, and I'm trying not to think about it all that much.  Mentally, I am not in the best place with the running, though my trip to San Francisco definitely showed me that the temperature has a HUGE impact on how fast and well I'm able to run.  I'm also having to kind of rediscover what my speed and distance feels like, since it was so different while I was pregnant.  I was purposely NOT pushing myself, so to push myself again is just taking more getting used to than I was anticipating.

So tomorrow's 5k (9am start - good because I don't have to be up at the butt crack of dawn, bad because it's going to be on the road to hot already by then, and there is something to be said for being done earlier rather than later) is described as a "challenging" course, which I think is code for "hilly."  The question is why, as a native Pittsburgh gal, a hilly 5k would be a surprise to me.  Isn't "hilly" the default around here?  Rather than stressing on it (the disappointing Skirt Chaser 5k that I did back in June was also a pretty hilly course, and I felt pretty demoralized after that), I'm just going to deal with it.  I run hills all the time, I can handle a few hills!  And it can't be any hotter than it was during the Stampede in the Park 5k that Haakan and I did a few weekends ago (which also started almost a half hour late ).  So perhaps this will be the race that starts me on the road to rebuilding my racing self esteem.  And if it's not, then there's always the Run Around the Square in two weeks.  And then the Ikea Half (which was my first half and is a nice route - the first mile is all downhill!) on September 11th.  Lots of chances for a good race and lots of chances for me to work on pushing myself more and not being afraid of what will happen, silly as that sounds.