Running In Place

In case you couldn’t view the race day pictures on the Snapfish link, or don’t care to go through the Snapfish registration, here’s another place to view them.

Written 7/11/05

Mile 6 was flat and I could feel that it was starting to get hotter. I worked on slowing down a little. Having come off the hill, I didn’t want to keep a pace that would spend me before the next, bedeviling incline. There were tons of spectators lining the street - bands, signs, noisemakers, a llama (from the nearby zoo). Running down a gauntlet like that is a mixed thing for me - on one hand, I felt like the queen and wanted to start waving and shaking peoples hands, on the other, I felt kind of self-conscious and awkward. When you walk around daily with the foolish notion that everybody is looking at you, and then you are in a situation where they actually are…it can be kind of disrupting to the psyche.

I passed the halfway mark at 55:something and tried to do some mental calculations but, well, that didn’t work out so I just ran some more. The 6 mile mark was right about where the looooong incline started. From 6 to 7 is the trickster because it’s visually deceptive. You think it’s not that steep, and you think you’ve got it but it just keeps going, and when you think you’re done with it you turn a corner and eat a little more of it! Thankfully, we were still feeling some breeze for part of this hill and I remember stretching my arms out at one point and just wanting to soak up as much moving air as I could. I missed the 6 mile marker so my 6 & 7 split ended up at 23:39.

Now it was crunch time. I had read in the local paper that when you get to the guy on stilts, it’s all downhill (more or less). At this point the crowds are getting thicker and thicker and the road is taking a downturn, and I’m thinking why am I holding back now?? So, I kicked it up, but mostly taking advantage of the subtle but welcome downward slant and crowd energy. At that point I was thinking shit, I’ve got this! I came around the bend, hitting mile 8 at 10:45 and just wanting to keep going like that for that last 1 point 3.

The last mile was weird. Surreal. I came around the corner and all of a sudden it was like everybody, no shit, EVERYBODY around me was walking! I was like, what? do we have a yellow flag?? I can’t emphasize this enough - it wasn’t just a few people in the immediate vicinity that were walking, it was all the people I could see around and in front of me!! I felt like a Kenyan runner! I was rocketing down the road, passing a whole mess of people, and feeling like a total rock star!! I felt strong and I thanked myself for holding back early on. Shortly into that last mile was when the world got really strange though. The whole thing about running into this wall of walking people was encouraging for my ego, but - empathetically speaking - it was kind of dispiriting. I was surrounded by people who were utterly spent - no crowd encouragement, no sprinklers or bands or stilts seemed to be enough to get them moving (or at least till it came time to run across the finish line). That whole psychological vacuum was compounded by several physical casualties on the road side. I passed people sitting on the curb being tended by EMTs, people on stretchers or backboards. We had to make way for 2 ambulances. Let me tell you, this was, for me, unquestionably, the longest of all the miles.

I’ll admit, I was flagging a little with less than a mile to go. I was looking to the finish and feeling as excited as hell but it was but it was tinged by some melancholy that this was ending, and I kind of didn?t want it to. Then I rounded the bend and there was the bagpipe band! I mean, c’mon - how life-affirming is that! So the goosebumps come up and I hit the gas and it’s the last quarter mile or so, and then - there’s my husband and son hootin’ and hollerin’ and the poor man is fumbling with the camera as I give the perfect photo-op wave and smile and he misses it cause he’s trying to cheer and clap too. He’s so silly and I love him. Next thing I know, there’s Molly!! I had lost sight of her for the last couple miles and all of a sudden we were together again! And I was so happy and grateful! We exchanged a few words and a big smile and just poured it on for the last several yards. We crossed the finish line pretty much side by side. I’m not here to speak for Molly, but I think we both felt strong - tired but strong! I don?t know if it could have gone any more how I hoped it would!

After removing our chips and getting our finishing pins, we moved with the crowd towards the party. There were stations along the way with water, orange slices, and popsicles. Evidently the Glaceau Vitamin Water folks weren’t anticipating the back-of-the-packers to be thirsty because they had evacuated their table, leaving only the memories contained in a ‘post-race party’ map chronicling proof of their existence, and the shattered remnants of cardboard pallets and empty cups. It’s ok, I’ve got my own vitamins.

Molly and I shuffled our way to the Family Reunion area to find my boys and her friend. The newspaper had said that this area would be alphabetized so we figured we’d find separate areas for a, b, c,d, you get the idea. Instead, we found a big lawn with 2 signs - one said A-L, the other M-Z, side by side. Attention please: all people with names ending in the letters A through Z, please proceed to the Family Reunion area so that you can easily find your loved ones among this throng of 40,000 people! Thank you. That is all.

Ok, as sarcastic as I would love to be, we actually found the people we were looking for pretty quickly. Beers obtained, we toasted our success, got our pictures taken, and went along to celebrate our day. I spent the afternoon on the porch with my family and best friend while they patiently allowed me to relive my glory several times over.

Although I had said out loud and to myself that I was not worrying about time and just wanted to finish, I will now admit that I was harboring a secret time goal I had resolved that I wouldn?t let it take any joy away from the accomplishment if I didn?t meet it but that, given my druthers, I?d like to have finished in around 1:52 for just a touch over 12:00 min/mile. In the end, my chip time was 1:47:38, averaging to 11:33/mile. So that?s a damn tasty icing on the cake!

A few fast facts:
Runners registered: 10,982
Runners finished: 9,417
Starting line temp: 68F
Finish line temp: 77F
Relative humidity: 68%
People requiring medical treatment: 283 (ranging from dehydration to ice packs to bee stings)
IV Fluid bags used: 240
People transported to the hospital: 14 (10 runners, 4 spectators)
Number of (incredibly awesome) volunteers: 6,000
Number of post-race partiers: around 40,000
Bill Rodgers? finishing time: 1:10:38 (his worst in 20 years of Boilermakers, blamed on hip problems)

Oh and since I didn?t want to bog down the longest blog entry ever with images, here’s where you can see some pictures from the day.

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……

I have a big ol’ long race report but I’m having problem posting it for some reason. It could be me. I’m tired. But every time I try to post the entry it’s all wiggy with no closing tags for the html stuff - so the entire entry is bold, or italics, or a link. I’ve tried to correct it and it’s just frustrating me. It could be my computer - things have been very messed up since we got broadband. It could be that I am tired. Exhausted. I will mess with it tomorrow.

It was exactly the race I had wanted it to be. I was exactly the runner I had hoped to be.

Molly rocked too. I know this because we finished side by side!

More to come tomorrow. Today is for hanging out with the family and basking in the afterglow.