So About That Race

Since I know my two readers out there are anxious to know how it went, I hate to disappoint :)

I went to bed around 10 pm Friday night worried about the weather forecast for Saturday. Thursday here the high was in the mid 80s. Saturday's high was supposed to be 48 with rain happening before noon. But I was determined to make it through. I had a new pair of pants, a running jacket and a rain/windbreaker, a new hat and some gloves, so I felt prepared. Everything was laid out and I set my alarm for 5:45. Plenty of rest. Except I was having trouble sleeping, finally falling completely asleep around 1 am.

Little did I know that my littlest monkey would start throwing up at 2:30 am. Luckily her Aunt Katie who was sharing a room with her was nice enough to get up with her the first time (and second time) she threw up waiting to wake me up until 3:15 am because Sophie kept getting sick. This began my race day. I didn't make it back to sleep- little one got sick a few more times and did not want to go back to sleep- she was so uncomfortable and just miserable. She finally went back to sleep about 5:15. I tried to nap, but then I was too nervous about oversleeping. So 6 am came and I got up (after considering just skipping it) got dressed and headed outside. I was pleasantly surprised at the warmer (but super windy) weather conditions. Two of our neighbors were riding with us, so we all got in the car and started the drive. We found parking with no problem and walked the .8 miles to the start with plenty of time to spare. Checked out a bunch of fun, creative costumes while waiting for our start time.

Start time came and I put on some music. I knew I was going to be running this one alone- Phillip tool off right away and my neighbors have all been running longer and more regularly than I have, so they all have a much faster pace. Not a problem, my initial goal was to finish. I ran the first 1.5 miles without stopping. The wind was insane! Walked until almost the 2 mile mark. At the 2 mile mark I came up on a two person team who was dressed at the slinky dog from toy story. It then became my goal to not come in behind the slinky dog. So I kept running (more like jogging) and actually ran (jogged) past the 4 mile marker. It was then that I saw another slinky dog up ahead of me. So, in keeping with my goal, I had to finish in front of that slinky as well. After about a half mile walking break, I took off on my run again. It was still pretty windy but it also started sprinkling. Then at mile 5 there was a downpour. Huge raindrops pretty much soaking me in about a minute. That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was that I went to wipe my eyes and face and one of my contacts got folded up in my eye. Hurt like crazy and was super irritating. I tried to stop and fix it but the rain was making that impossible. So I closed one eye and started to run again- the faster I got to the car the faster I could fix it. Thankfully the rain stopped and through the fog I could see the finish arch. Almost there! I finished in 1 hour, 45 minutes. Under a 17 minutes pace for 6.2 miles. I'm happy with that all things considered :)

Tomorrow is back to the training. I've got to get that under a 16 minute mile for the Disney races, and have a personal goal of 10 minute miles for those. So one step at a time- 2.75 miles in 45 minutes or less :)