I hit the 9k mark. I check my watch, I'm making up time but I've lost way too much in the first half. (I should be running a 10k in under an hour, mind you, I didn't train for this other than the week before, which is highly wrong). Walking for just a few feet crosses my mind, this is unusual at this stage of a race (but usual when running, for me). I grit my teeth and kick on to the finish. I know I'm close when I pass the walkie talker person who relays your number to the finish so they can announce you. I sweep over the line, forget to stop my watch. I am momentarily confused by the finish clock - I looked at one for another distance (starts are at different times) and feel a frisson of disappointment to realize my watch was not wrong while I was out there running and I truly have not finished in less than an hour. I put my leg up on a bench so they can remove my chip (no, I'm not a robot, it's a timing device you wear on your shoe). A volunteer chats to me and another hands me a bottle of water. Wonderful event. I then peruse the finish line goodies, drink my water, and wait to see the times posted. 1:04:37.
I check out the scene and then check out the contents of my race package. A small bottle of Dasani water (if I'm drinking bottled, I'll pick out this brand so cool); a coupon for a running store; some cool hair elastics; a thermal beanie; Motrin and pain relief instructions; a magnet for a real estate dude; a coupon for a free bicycle tune-up (which a lot of people will want, thinking, 'sheeeeeee-it, I'm never running again! where's my bike?!'); pamphlets for assorted stuff, including an upcoming marathon in another city; more pain stuff; foot cream; and body cream, all in a "totally degradable" bag. I stretch, and then it's off to the next part of my journey....
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Friday, September 14, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Game Day Diary
6:20 a.m. - The alarm beeps and I shut it off. I'm surprised I slept pretty well despite some interruptions and don't feel like killing anyone just to be able to get a few more minutes sleep.
(Usually I'm a bit paranoid that the alarm won't go off and so I wake up a lot, sitting up in panic to check the time).
I get up and get ready. I'm useless at eating right when I get up so I grab some Powerade (the green one, pineapple melon flavour) and a dried fruit thin.
7:00 a.m. - I drive off to where the run I'm doing will be held. I'm unsure about parking.
I'm nearing the start/finish area of the race but I keep going and end up finding a parking spot really close. I'm shocked, and very pleased.
This race is a corporate challenge event. There are various distances, I'm signed up on a team that's to do the 10k. The team itself seems to me very poorly organized (it's not my company). The team leader was kind of waffling over whether or not we'd get enough people and that was excuse enough to me to not train for the event. I emailed when the event was closer and the waffling was still there. Then about 2 days beforehand, I get a call from the team captain saying it's a go.
I'm now in the parking garage about to go off to find this woman who I barely know. I get to the congested race start area and go inside the hotel where we're supposed to meet. Not there. I check the bag check area, not there. And so on. I'm getting a little panicked because the team captain picks up the race packages. This means I have no number etc. and I'll be mighty pissed if I got up early and this doesn't come together. Finally I see the woman outside.
The event itself I discover is very well organized. I'm pleased. I've done races before where they run out of fluids at the fluid stations and that is not cool. The start/finish line has official clocks, there's music blasting, and the usual atmosphere. If you're not familiar, it's a kind of 'runners camraderie' thing going on. A lot of stretching, jogging, pinning bib numbers on and that kind of thing. And line ups for the porta potties of course. I enjoy the atmosphere, solo as my team seems to be snobby. (One woman on the team gushes about how she's really slow and she'll be last and she won't stop fretting. I'm trying to be reassuring etc. She ends up coming in 2nd in her age category. I'm sorry, but bite me you stupid be-yotch. Honestly, that's just insulting. No one who actually is slow etc. comes in 2nd in their age group at a race like this.)
The announcer comes on and starts to rev us up for the start. It's ironic, because I'm a slow runner, but I'm mentally telling myself to start slow - it's a well known fact that going out too fast early is a killer. And at big events like this one it's easy to get pumped up and not realize your pace is way fast.
As we get closer (the official clock is counting down), they put on Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Good choice. I've always found that intro to be very inspiring. So I really tell myself to watch my pace. BANG! Just as the song kicks in (nicely timed!) the starting gun goes off and we begin. In case you're not familiar with these events, the starts are packed so it takes a bit to cross the line.
I check my watch at the 1k mark. Shit! Way slow! Like over a minute past what it should be. Apparently I was so worried about being too fast I've created the opposite problem. But I don't learn from this, I still think I'd better be careful not to increase my pace too much. When I check my watch again, still way slow. Yet my pace doesn't feel slow. This is why you can't go with how it feels.
5k mark - I can't remember exactly, but I think I was at 36 or 37 minutes some odd seconds. Not good. WAAAAAY too slow. So I power it on. As I approach the 6k mark a cover band is playing a Tragically Hip song. I'm inspired. I'm a fair distance away when they start into the next song, but I can tell it's one by 54-40, cool.
As you run along on these things, people actually cheer for you. When I was somewhere around km 3 or 4, the lead male runner was passing me in the opposite direction. Damn these top people are fast. He even gets bicycle escorts. Way cool. They have signs on the bikes to tell you it's the lead guy. A ways after him come more men, singly and in packs. I'm keeping my eye out but it's a good while til the top female passes. After her comes a guy, he's yelling encouragement at me. I'm too tired to yell encouragement at other people when I'm running, sheesh.
I like the design of this course. It's not 100% out and back, but mostly, and the 1st half has a lot more uphill - the 2nd have much more downhill, awesome! The fluid stations are well run. Everything is great. Except my fuck up with my timing, but whatever. It's a beautiful day.
Can't remember exactly where, but at one fluid station they were having a little battle, the water server was trying to get me to take water, the gatordade server his wares (the gatorade silly, sheesh). The lucky winner was stoked I picked his beverage, while the water server made a last ditch effort, asking something like, 'and some water too??' I managed a grin (hell of an effort, this running shit is draining y'know).... to be continued....
(Usually I'm a bit paranoid that the alarm won't go off and so I wake up a lot, sitting up in panic to check the time).
I get up and get ready. I'm useless at eating right when I get up so I grab some Powerade (the green one, pineapple melon flavour) and a dried fruit thin.
7:00 a.m. - I drive off to where the run I'm doing will be held. I'm unsure about parking.
I'm nearing the start/finish area of the race but I keep going and end up finding a parking spot really close. I'm shocked, and very pleased.
This race is a corporate challenge event. There are various distances, I'm signed up on a team that's to do the 10k. The team itself seems to me very poorly organized (it's not my company). The team leader was kind of waffling over whether or not we'd get enough people and that was excuse enough to me to not train for the event. I emailed when the event was closer and the waffling was still there. Then about 2 days beforehand, I get a call from the team captain saying it's a go.
I'm now in the parking garage about to go off to find this woman who I barely know. I get to the congested race start area and go inside the hotel where we're supposed to meet. Not there. I check the bag check area, not there. And so on. I'm getting a little panicked because the team captain picks up the race packages. This means I have no number etc. and I'll be mighty pissed if I got up early and this doesn't come together. Finally I see the woman outside.
The event itself I discover is very well organized. I'm pleased. I've done races before where they run out of fluids at the fluid stations and that is not cool. The start/finish line has official clocks, there's music blasting, and the usual atmosphere. If you're not familiar, it's a kind of 'runners camraderie' thing going on. A lot of stretching, jogging, pinning bib numbers on and that kind of thing. And line ups for the porta potties of course. I enjoy the atmosphere, solo as my team seems to be snobby. (One woman on the team gushes about how she's really slow and she'll be last and she won't stop fretting. I'm trying to be reassuring etc. She ends up coming in 2nd in her age category. I'm sorry, but bite me you stupid be-yotch. Honestly, that's just insulting. No one who actually is slow etc. comes in 2nd in their age group at a race like this.)
The announcer comes on and starts to rev us up for the start. It's ironic, because I'm a slow runner, but I'm mentally telling myself to start slow - it's a well known fact that going out too fast early is a killer. And at big events like this one it's easy to get pumped up and not realize your pace is way fast.
As we get closer (the official clock is counting down), they put on Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Good choice. I've always found that intro to be very inspiring. So I really tell myself to watch my pace. BANG! Just as the song kicks in (nicely timed!) the starting gun goes off and we begin. In case you're not familiar with these events, the starts are packed so it takes a bit to cross the line.
I check my watch at the 1k mark. Shit! Way slow! Like over a minute past what it should be. Apparently I was so worried about being too fast I've created the opposite problem. But I don't learn from this, I still think I'd better be careful not to increase my pace too much. When I check my watch again, still way slow. Yet my pace doesn't feel slow. This is why you can't go with how it feels.
5k mark - I can't remember exactly, but I think I was at 36 or 37 minutes some odd seconds. Not good. WAAAAAY too slow. So I power it on. As I approach the 6k mark a cover band is playing a Tragically Hip song. I'm inspired. I'm a fair distance away when they start into the next song, but I can tell it's one by 54-40, cool.
As you run along on these things, people actually cheer for you. When I was somewhere around km 3 or 4, the lead male runner was passing me in the opposite direction. Damn these top people are fast. He even gets bicycle escorts. Way cool. They have signs on the bikes to tell you it's the lead guy. A ways after him come more men, singly and in packs. I'm keeping my eye out but it's a good while til the top female passes. After her comes a guy, he's yelling encouragement at me. I'm too tired to yell encouragement at other people when I'm running, sheesh.
I like the design of this course. It's not 100% out and back, but mostly, and the 1st half has a lot more uphill - the 2nd have much more downhill, awesome! The fluid stations are well run. Everything is great. Except my fuck up with my timing, but whatever. It's a beautiful day.
Can't remember exactly where, but at one fluid station they were having a little battle, the water server was trying to get me to take water, the gatordade server his wares (the gatorade silly, sheesh). The lucky winner was stoked I picked his beverage, while the water server made a last ditch effort, asking something like, 'and some water too??' I managed a grin (hell of an effort, this running shit is draining y'know).... to be continued....
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lament on Leaves
Just in case you're not aware, we are currently in the month of July. In the Northern Hemisphere, July is one of the months of which Summer is composed. However, today during my run, I could not help but notice that there were leaves, leaves that had changed colour, lying on the ground. Leaves changing colour and lying on the ground is considered a property of Fall (Fall, like leaves fall to the ground), otherwise known as Autumn. Now don't get me wrong, I love to run through the fallen leaves on the ground in the Fall, in fact it's a highlight of the running year and I wish we had more of the leaves & in prettier colours, like other areas in the country do. But, I lament seeing this in July. Furthermore, I do not ever recall seeing this EXCEPT IN THE FALL. Damn that Al Gore, this is one of those inconvenient truths. Damn global warming - I'm running over leaves and people in England are swimming across the street. Blimey. This is a spot of bother isn't it? I think I'll go have a cup of tea. Maybe Miss Marple can help solve this issue. Or we can just listen to Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Fool in the Rain
Yes, it's a very favourite Zeppelin song, and it's also the subject of today's blog.
So I go out for a run - the weather has been a bit confused, but it seems pretty good, lots of patches of blue sky and sun. Very quickly that goes away. No big deal.
It starts to drizzle. No big deal.
Pretty soon it's raining steadily. Not such a big deal.
I think you can see where this is headed...
It starts moving into the realm of pouring. And I mean pouring. I'm wearing a light running jacket and the arms are soaked through (ick) so once I'm at the point where I move from walking to running I take it off and tie it around my waist. I wonder how many people were driving by and thinking, "you idiot! you have a jacket, why aren't you wearing it!?"
Pretty soon I am soaked. I mean like I've been in the shower with clothes on (and yes, I would know, so there, shut it). I can feel the weight of my sopping clothing. Hey, this is good right? It's like running with weights. What a workout! I know it must be bad because someone driving by slows down and lowers the window to offer me a ride.
The rain continues - now torrential. I get even more soaked. Other than a couple of dry(ish) patches here and there, I now look like I've definitely been in the shower, but more likely in the bath. If it were horse racing 'bath' would be 3-1 and 'shower' would be 15-1.
A fire department vehicle going the other direction stops, the man driving offers me a ride. (Let me clarify, this isn't a fire truck on it's way to a fire or anything, it's just a vehicle painted in red that says Fire Department-whatever stuff all over it and has sirens and shit.) The guy driving calls me ma'am. Hey buddy, you are way older than me, cool it with the ma'am stuff. He also is snarky, all, "guess you need a ride huh, dumb twit got caught in the rain" type of thing. I am super polite but decline. I'm in running gear with headphones and the whole bit, I'm not running with a newspaper over my head to the closest shelter here, c'mon. Anyway, I think the only reason he offered me a ride was because he saw how soaked I was and went, "hey, she could put out a fire like nobody's business! Throw her on there and vooomffff, flames gone! The chief will give me a promotion if I bring in this sure-fire (no pun intended?) human extinguisher." Sorry about the promotion buddy. Better luck next time.
I continued on with my regular route, not really minding the soaked-ness that much. In truth, my main concern was, hmmm, just how see-through would my shirt be right now? That particular issue took up a fair bit of my attention. Especially as it seemed that for some reason the traffic level was higher than usual. And I was wearing a pale coloured t-shirt.
I made it home, having somehow managed to get even more soaked by that point. As I walked inside I could hear that "squoosh squooosh" noise. I looked in the mirror, observed the level of see through, decided it wasn't great but that I would be able to show my face again (preferably only my face in the future though) and struggled to remove my wet clothing. I kid you not, my little t shirt weighed about 5lbs. After I finished my arms hurt. Honestly. Like, more than they do after the gym. Yeah, how sad is that.
So I go out for a run - the weather has been a bit confused, but it seems pretty good, lots of patches of blue sky and sun. Very quickly that goes away. No big deal.
It starts to drizzle. No big deal.
Pretty soon it's raining steadily. Not such a big deal.
I think you can see where this is headed...
It starts moving into the realm of pouring. And I mean pouring. I'm wearing a light running jacket and the arms are soaked through (ick) so once I'm at the point where I move from walking to running I take it off and tie it around my waist. I wonder how many people were driving by and thinking, "you idiot! you have a jacket, why aren't you wearing it!?"
Pretty soon I am soaked. I mean like I've been in the shower with clothes on (and yes, I would know, so there, shut it). I can feel the weight of my sopping clothing. Hey, this is good right? It's like running with weights. What a workout! I know it must be bad because someone driving by slows down and lowers the window to offer me a ride.
The rain continues - now torrential. I get even more soaked. Other than a couple of dry(ish) patches here and there, I now look like I've definitely been in the shower, but more likely in the bath. If it were horse racing 'bath' would be 3-1 and 'shower' would be 15-1.
A fire department vehicle going the other direction stops, the man driving offers me a ride. (Let me clarify, this isn't a fire truck on it's way to a fire or anything, it's just a vehicle painted in red that says Fire Department-whatever stuff all over it and has sirens and shit.) The guy driving calls me ma'am. Hey buddy, you are way older than me, cool it with the ma'am stuff. He also is snarky, all, "guess you need a ride huh, dumb twit got caught in the rain" type of thing. I am super polite but decline. I'm in running gear with headphones and the whole bit, I'm not running with a newspaper over my head to the closest shelter here, c'mon. Anyway, I think the only reason he offered me a ride was because he saw how soaked I was and went, "hey, she could put out a fire like nobody's business! Throw her on there and vooomffff, flames gone! The chief will give me a promotion if I bring in this sure-fire (no pun intended?) human extinguisher." Sorry about the promotion buddy. Better luck next time.
I continued on with my regular route, not really minding the soaked-ness that much. In truth, my main concern was, hmmm, just how see-through would my shirt be right now? That particular issue took up a fair bit of my attention. Especially as it seemed that for some reason the traffic level was higher than usual. And I was wearing a pale coloured t-shirt.
I made it home, having somehow managed to get even more soaked by that point. As I walked inside I could hear that "squoosh squooosh" noise. I looked in the mirror, observed the level of see through, decided it wasn't great but that I would be able to show my face again (preferably only my face in the future though) and struggled to remove my wet clothing. I kid you not, my little t shirt weighed about 5lbs. After I finished my arms hurt. Honestly. Like, more than they do after the gym. Yeah, how sad is that.
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