Running In Place

Jeanne suggested that I might try breaking my race report down into a couple of entries to see if that was what was giving me problems last night. Evidently, even computers have an intolerance to my rambling, long-winded stories.

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Written 7/11/05

Wow! It’s really over, done, did it. All the physical and emotional investment - behind me. The start, midle, and end - behind me. The celebratory get together - behind me. Today my mind is in some strange state where it all seems so far behind me that I’m not even sure it really happened. (cue fuzzy screen and hypnotic music as we fade to flashback sequence)

Let’s begin on Saturday night, when I’m running around the house like a maniac trying to vacuum, make salads for the cookout, lay out clothes, shave my legs, thrust myself into bed by 9PM…no make it 10PM, so I can cut fruit and iron my shorts (< -seriously), at which time I must immediately fall into a sound and restful sleep. Then it occurred to me that, despite the fact that I was setting 2 alarms, I would probably oversleep and miss the race because a) the power goes out, or b) I suddenly become deaf to the air raid-type sirens that come from my 20 year old clock radio. So I set my 2 alarms, my husband sets the 2 alarms on his clock that also has a battery back-up, plus I set my battery powered travel clock. With that “near-disaster” averted, there’s nothing left to do but go to bed and lay there until the next time I have to get up and pee (yep, a gallon of water a day x 3 days)!

Of course my alarm(s) went off and I popped right out of bed at 4:15AM. A cup of coffee, some more water, check my blog comments and soak in all the good energy comin’ at me, get dressed, spend more minutes than I am willing to publicize getting my number bib on ‘just right’, eat an Odwalla Bar, chip on sneaker, essentials packed, let’s go go go!!! My husband kindly took me to the starting area so I wouldn’t have to worry about parking and shuttling. Before I left him I greased up with sunscreen and made nervous chatter. It was about 6:15AM and still a little cool, maybe mid-60’s F, but I didn’t want to mess around with a jacket or sweatshirt so I sucked it up figuring I would be warm enough soon enough. I walked to the staging area, which was moderately crowded but not mobbed yet. I was able to use the porta-john the first time with no wait and the last, just-in-case time, with minimal wait, so I was glad I arrived early. A little less than an hour before start time I was just hanging around, listening to announcements and watching people when up walks Molly! I can’t tell you how awesome it was to see a familiar face! We made way to our corral, which was literally the back of the back. That was actually quite cool because we were on an overpass and all the cars driving under were honking, we were able to see practically the entire starting chute spread out in front of us, and we had lots of elbow room. There were, maybe, 50 people behind us and that was it. Being nearly the last person in a line of 10,900 people was actually a cool feeling - it’s like your own little country. When someone began playing the Star Spangled Banner, it took several seconds for the realization to travel through the crowd but I’ll count it as one of my top-10 goosebump moments to stand on an elevated overpass, look down on nearly 11,000 people, and hear nothing but the sound of that trumpet.

As it got to be 8:00, some guys behind us were joking that we probably wouldn’t hear the starting gun as it had been so difficult to hear any of the race announcements waaaaay back in our little country. Just a few seconds later, the cannon went off and there was no doubt! Even if our feet weren’t moving yet, our hearts were!! We were able to watch the wave and actually pinpoint the place, about half way down the chute, where people went from walking to jogging - so we shuffled along until just about that spot, then we were trotting and we were off. The announcer was calling out how many minutes into the race we where - at 4:39 the leader hit 1 mile, and by the time we crossed the pads at 11:10 into the race they were digging well into their 2nd.

And so off we went! I was working, really working, on keeping slow and keeping the effort way down. I was determined not to mess this up! Molly and I had decided that we were rooting for each other all the way but not beholden to each other. Both being new at it, both being unsure of how our own race would unfold, I think we each wanted to find our own way through. That being said, upon crossing the start line, Molly left me in the dust As things unfolded, we were always within a few feet to several yards of each other and we leapfrogged each other enough times to keep the encouragement flying!

The first mile started on a bit of an uphill but then pretty much leveled and continued to be mostly flat for mile 2 and maybe 3/4’s of mile 3. This was kind of the introductory leg - more and more people lining the streets, shouting encouragement, the sun feeling a little brighter, the temp a little warmer. But these were smooth miles and I really felt good. I was pretty consistently around 12:10-ish for the first 3.

It was maybe at about 2.75, give or take, that we turned to head up one of the major hills. Molly and I had joined up again at this point and we were totally ready! I can’t speak for her, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be - you go up a pretty steep hill that is not too long, level, go down a bit and turn onto the golf course where you go up a longer, winding upwards path. It’s not easy, but it won’t kill ya either! That whole sequence entailed the end of mile 3 and nearly all of 4. Mile 4, with the uphill was 12:19 and I was happy. The time made me happy enough, but I was really just happy that I rocked the hill. Along this way, especially at the top of the hill, there were tons of people just screaming encouragement. One guy was hollering “they said you couldn’t do it, but you’re doing it!” I know he meant well, and I thank him for being out there and cheering us on, but it was funny that all of us runners in the immediate area at that time looked at each other and said WHO SAID WE COULDN’T DO THIS?? Then we all pushed up the rest of that hill!! I guess he had the intended effect, even if not in the way he anticipated. (hmmm or maybe it was).

All of the 5th mile was either downhill or flat so, you know, rock-n-roll. This particular downhill, which I’ve run up and down for the development runs, is a great opportunity to just open it up. It’s not frightfully steep, but it’s steep enough to let gravity do most the work without having to feel like you have to put on the brakes too much. This was a cool 10:27 and refreshing as well. I should mention here that, as Molly said, there was a (blessed) head wind. For me, that was saving, just feeling the breeze - especially after running under some kind spectator’s hose - kept me from feeling oppressed by the sun and heat. I read in the paper today that the headwind caused a problem for some folks in relation to masking the actual heat. They pushed too hard and when they lost the breeze the temp really hit them.
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Wait, it’s not over yet! Continued on next post……