Nancy set up this nice virtual race on a date that I couldn’t resist. I like cool numbers. I have one kid whose birthday is a binary palindrome and Beer Geek’s birthday is in the pattern 123123 (he’d not be pleased with me sharing the actual date LOL). What can I say, I’m a geek that way, so I had to get in on this run.
Unfortunately, I had a rest day on the schedule for the 8th and a 15 miler scheduled for the 9th. With Beer Geek traveling, there was no way to change it. Luckily, Nancy is nice that way and allowed for flexibility.
Saturday morning started as a sunny, cool, breezy day. Not at all what one would expect in the south in August. It was absolutely perfect for running. I, on the other hand, was hit with the trifecta of running excuses: a cold, a sore ankle, and children who chose not to sleep on Friday night.
So, this morning, I got up bright and early to hit the road. (15 on the 10th is the same as 8 on the 8th, right? Penalty miles or something like that LOL.) It was a beautiful, cool morning with just a little bit of a breeze. Although I really wanted to race the virtual race, I knew I’d never finish 15 miles if I pushed myself on the first 8, not to mention that if there was an olympic medal for snot production, I’d have been all over that gold. I set out with a goal of a 10:30 pace.
I decided to try a new route this morning. I thought about running the first few miles of the Marine Corps Marathon route, but there is a wicked hill at the beginning and I just wasn’t up for it. So, I headed the opposite direction from our house and had an awesome first four miles, finishing them in 41:09. Then I hit the HILL. OMG. It felt like a quarter mile straight up and then when I crested it, it was another half mile of mild incline. I thought I was going.to.die. Amazingly, I managed that mile in 10:37, thanks to a sharp downhill right before I hit the HILL. I ate a gu and walked a bit in mile 6 and finished my 8 miles in 1:23:14!
(You can stop reading now if you only care about the 8 LOL)
But that left me with 7 more miles to go. I started towards home, planning to hit the McD’s for a potty break. I got there around the 9 mile point and my legs were really starting to hurt. So, I ran loops around the general area, figuring that once I stopped, I was going to have trouble starting again. I finally stopped at the 11 mile point and used the bathroom (compression shorts are a b*tch to get up when sweaty) and got some cold water to refill my bottle and then headed towards my neighborhood. I managed to time things right to hit my nice, flat 3 mile loop with 3 miles left to go.
Not only is that particular loop the easiest three miles anywhere around here, but it’s one I run at least once every couple of weeks. I thought to myself “I can spank this b*tch and finish the last three at a sub 10 minute pace.” Ok, that didn’t happen, but I did give her a disapproving look and manage to finish the run LOL. Total time: 2:44:23, subtract bathroom time of 4 minuts and it’s 2:40:23, averaging 10:58 (10:42 “corrected”).
Edited to add: Apparently I was smokin’ crack when I took the time off my garmin. It was actually 2:41:14, so 2:37:06 without the bathroom break (I don’t take out lights, gu’s or any other random stops) 10:29 minute miles!
I did learn today that I need to remember to refresh my deodorant before my run. Not only does it help with chafing, I apparently was stinking pretty bad near the end. I had to run through “day laborer corner”, where usually I get comments like “muy linda” and suggestive gestures. Today, they parted like the Red Sea. LOL
Oh, and if one of the nuun tablets falls in your coffee? It curdles the milk.
Thanks Nancy for a fun race!