The Turtle Earns Their Worm. 3/31/18
I'm sitting at home recovering from a migraine so I figured I'd finally write a few things down regarding my experience with the Early Bird 10 Mile run.
I started the morning out around 4:30am. Which is impressive because that's actually the time I was aiming for. If you know me, I don't do the whole wake up early thing so yeah, score #1. I was hoping that this would give my stomach enough time to calm the eff down before the gun at 7:30. A pot of coffee later, we were no closer to being fine. I don't think my protein shake helped much either. So much for non dairy being less gut reactive *grumbles*
Hearing the wind howling already at 5:30 was enough to start putting me off. Sitting in my car in the parking lot around 6 really didn't help either. I am a HUGE wimp when it comes to wind. I enjoy being outside in the cold/hot/snow/fog/rain whatever. Toss in wind and I dive for cover. No different here.
I know I dressed okay but that walk to the start/finish area started the misery. I'll try not to complain about the wind but oh man, seriously, the wind. At least the hill through the park helped warm me up a bit. I'm the type of runner that will try to make friend since, as I said before, I'm lonely. This time was no different. Oddly enough, all the ladies I talked to turned out to be part of running groups that I'm involved with. This didn't change during the race LOL. One gal said I was the most positive person there. I had to laugh since I was hiding my fear of failure really REALLY well.
You'll hear a lot of negative self talk in the back of the coral. It's mainly because we're scared. Scared of not making it, scared of being made fun of, scared of stepping out of our comfort zone. One gal and I realized that hell, even if we walked it we could finish so it was gonna be okay. We're mighty after all!
Pink Gorilla did an amazing job of keeping people pumped up and going before the gun. The one thing that amazed me was I thought there were enough port-a-johns since I never had to wait. Well about 10 minutes before gun the lines were probably a good 100 yards. Yikes!
I'm impressed that they funneled us through pretty fast. Being clear in the back, I figured it would take maybe 10 minutes. In reality it was only 4. My biggest problem was getting my interval timer and my Garmin started at close to the same time. Garmin was off by a few seconds which isn't a huge deal since you know, I'm not elite or anything. ;)
Of course, I did exactly what I didn't want to do, get out of the start faster than I should be. I was pacing around 11 and that wasn't even close to being what I needed to be at (13:30 at the start). It was hard to get slowed down but I finally did around the 2nd mile. I wasn't the only interval runner out there so I felt so much more comfortable. I know a lot of people don't think we're "real" runners. I don't think their opinion "really" counts. We have real camaraderie back there though. You can generally end up working off of/with other people ahead of you and it take a lot of the fear away.
So those tummy issues? I had to stop at the first damned rest area. Who ever provided the port-a-johns, thank you from the bottom of my heart. The only problem was it took about 4 minutes to get through that stop. They even had tissues at that stop! Perfect since we all know what our noses do on cold/blustery mornings. OH and coming into that area I saw my first accident. A gal hit a crack in the road and rolled it. I was impressed though, she tucked and went with it. Popped up right as rain. I have no excuses after watching that!
I honestly don't remember too much after that until hitting the five mile mark. Normally my 5 mile is just over an hour. Clock time (from the gun) had me at 1:16. Again, I wasn't going to get disqualified but still, it was a bit of a bummer being that far behind for "me". There was no getting around the bathroom break but yeah, I was kicking my own butt over that one. I have to say the cheer stations/mile markers that were manned were amazing. I know they were cheering in general but having someone give you a little positivity especially that late in the game really REALLY helps. There was even a marching band in there somewhere. That had me giggling out of sheer creativity.
Coming back around the small part of Zorinsky gave us jelly beans, Gu, and an Easter Rabbit that recognized me but wouldn't tell me who he was. That's STILL bugging me! I should have stopped for a pic but wasn't thinking at that point. I didn't eat the gu so why I took it I'll never know. I did take more water though. Come to think of it, I think I watered at every station. I had a bottle with Nuun in it on me that I was using, but I did drink on top of that. Hell I had a honey stick and Justin's peanut butter packet that didn't get opened either. All hail water??
Mile 8 and 9 had me giddy. I high fived the flags. There was no one there so hey, something had to celebrate getting this far with me right? There was one gal who came out of nowhere. I hadn't seen her the entire time (including catching back up to my "pack") and she just sort of all left us in the dust. Not judging, just wondering where she came from.
I had to laugh though. Which in running you either laugh or start bawling. There was a hill towards the end. Most hills I can try to power through best as possible since let's face it, you can try anything for 2 minutes. Nope. Not even a good college try. Huge nope. I wanted to sit down so damned badly at that point. It messed me up so good I even tried to go down a different hill and the cop had to redirect me. I finished out with an awesome gal who is running 50 races this year in honor of her mom and turning 50. That's a damned good goal and I know she'll crush it.
I crossed the line around 2:25 gun time. My chip time put me at 2:21:06. I'm in the bottom 5th percentile for women 40-44. But you know what? I finished that damned thing. I smiled and laughed for most of it. Even now, realizing the strength that it took to do that, from actually training to starting to keeping going when I didn't want to, I did it.
That's not to say post race wasn't unique. Side note to vendors out there. We're still racers and we might want to give you our money. Don't shut up shop just because everyone else has come and gone already. I'm looking at you Orange Theory booth. But I got my breakfast burrito (for Pat) and found some coffee. I had no desire to go for Mimosas at that point, free or not. I think I experienced my first runners high though (back when I got lost) since I had to ask for help finding my car. Seriously. I couldn't figure out what direction was what to save my life. And of course my phone died. The medical lady was really REALLY helpful though and got me pointed to where I needed to go. I kid you not, it was uphill. That was evil.
I'm really impressed that my body wasn't totally killing me. I scored a nice hot epsom salt bath (thank you Walgreens bath salts), zapped my legs with my tens/massager unit, and took the greatest nap known to mankind. Stair still rather suck even today but I really thought I'd be worse off. Another advantage of being slow!!
There's things I'm forgetting I know. Which sucks because I really want to remember this. I met some really great people that I joked/talked with along the way. That's what running should be in my opinion. At least it is back here. :)
<3
Bunny
I started the morning out around 4:30am. Which is impressive because that's actually the time I was aiming for. If you know me, I don't do the whole wake up early thing so yeah, score #1. I was hoping that this would give my stomach enough time to calm the eff down before the gun at 7:30. A pot of coffee later, we were no closer to being fine. I don't think my protein shake helped much either. So much for non dairy being less gut reactive *grumbles*
Hearing the wind howling already at 5:30 was enough to start putting me off. Sitting in my car in the parking lot around 6 really didn't help either. I am a HUGE wimp when it comes to wind. I enjoy being outside in the cold/hot/snow/fog/rain whatever. Toss in wind and I dive for cover. No different here.
 |
| Just gonna nap right here... |
I know I dressed okay but that walk to the start/finish area started the misery. I'll try not to complain about the wind but oh man, seriously, the wind. At least the hill through the park helped warm me up a bit. I'm the type of runner that will try to make friend since, as I said before, I'm lonely. This time was no different. Oddly enough, all the ladies I talked to turned out to be part of running groups that I'm involved with. This didn't change during the race LOL. One gal said I was the most positive person there. I had to laugh since I was hiding my fear of failure really REALLY well.
You'll hear a lot of negative self talk in the back of the coral. It's mainly because we're scared. Scared of not making it, scared of being made fun of, scared of stepping out of our comfort zone. One gal and I realized that hell, even if we walked it we could finish so it was gonna be okay. We're mighty after all!
Pink Gorilla did an amazing job of keeping people pumped up and going before the gun. The one thing that amazed me was I thought there were enough port-a-johns since I never had to wait. Well about 10 minutes before gun the lines were probably a good 100 yards. Yikes!
I'm impressed that they funneled us through pretty fast. Being clear in the back, I figured it would take maybe 10 minutes. In reality it was only 4. My biggest problem was getting my interval timer and my Garmin started at close to the same time. Garmin was off by a few seconds which isn't a huge deal since you know, I'm not elite or anything. ;)
 |
| Sunrise |
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| My Flag area |
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| 'Sup |
So those tummy issues? I had to stop at the first damned rest area. Who ever provided the port-a-johns, thank you from the bottom of my heart. The only problem was it took about 4 minutes to get through that stop. They even had tissues at that stop! Perfect since we all know what our noses do on cold/blustery mornings. OH and coming into that area I saw my first accident. A gal hit a crack in the road and rolled it. I was impressed though, she tucked and went with it. Popped up right as rain. I have no excuses after watching that!
I honestly don't remember too much after that until hitting the five mile mark. Normally my 5 mile is just over an hour. Clock time (from the gun) had me at 1:16. Again, I wasn't going to get disqualified but still, it was a bit of a bummer being that far behind for "me". There was no getting around the bathroom break but yeah, I was kicking my own butt over that one. I have to say the cheer stations/mile markers that were manned were amazing. I know they were cheering in general but having someone give you a little positivity especially that late in the game really REALLY helps. There was even a marching band in there somewhere. That had me giggling out of sheer creativity.
 |
| Smart Marketing? |
Coming back around the small part of Zorinsky gave us jelly beans, Gu, and an Easter Rabbit that recognized me but wouldn't tell me who he was. That's STILL bugging me! I should have stopped for a pic but wasn't thinking at that point. I didn't eat the gu so why I took it I'll never know. I did take more water though. Come to think of it, I think I watered at every station. I had a bottle with Nuun in it on me that I was using, but I did drink on top of that. Hell I had a honey stick and Justin's peanut butter packet that didn't get opened either. All hail water??
Mile 8 and 9 had me giddy. I high fived the flags. There was no one there so hey, something had to celebrate getting this far with me right? There was one gal who came out of nowhere. I hadn't seen her the entire time (including catching back up to my "pack") and she just sort of all left us in the dust. Not judging, just wondering where she came from.
I had to laugh though. Which in running you either laugh or start bawling. There was a hill towards the end. Most hills I can try to power through best as possible since let's face it, you can try anything for 2 minutes. Nope. Not even a good college try. Huge nope. I wanted to sit down so damned badly at that point. It messed me up so good I even tried to go down a different hill and the cop had to redirect me. I finished out with an awesome gal who is running 50 races this year in honor of her mom and turning 50. That's a damned good goal and I know she'll crush it.
I crossed the line around 2:25 gun time. My chip time put me at 2:21:06. I'm in the bottom 5th percentile for women 40-44. But you know what? I finished that damned thing. I smiled and laughed for most of it. Even now, realizing the strength that it took to do that, from actually training to starting to keeping going when I didn't want to, I did it.
That's not to say post race wasn't unique. Side note to vendors out there. We're still racers and we might want to give you our money. Don't shut up shop just because everyone else has come and gone already. I'm looking at you Orange Theory booth. But I got my breakfast burrito (for Pat) and found some coffee. I had no desire to go for Mimosas at that point, free or not. I think I experienced my first runners high though (back when I got lost) since I had to ask for help finding my car. Seriously. I couldn't figure out what direction was what to save my life. And of course my phone died. The medical lady was really REALLY helpful though and got me pointed to where I needed to go. I kid you not, it was uphill. That was evil.
 |
| I'm not dead yet... |
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| Sooo many brands here. |
I'm really impressed that my body wasn't totally killing me. I scored a nice hot epsom salt bath (thank you Walgreens bath salts), zapped my legs with my tens/massager unit, and took the greatest nap known to mankind. Stair still rather suck even today but I really thought I'd be worse off. Another advantage of being slow!!
There's things I'm forgetting I know. Which sucks because I really want to remember this. I met some really great people that I joked/talked with along the way. That's what running should be in my opinion. At least it is back here. :)
<3
Bunny
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