Saturday, June 12, 2010

Malta Tractor Trot 5K recap

It was horrible.  Just horrible.  It started last night.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to run in the first place.  I decided to because my good friend was doing it.  Last night I went to bed at 10, not too bad.  At 11:30 I woke up to snoring.  I got Dave to roll over and fell back to sleep.  At 1am the dumb dog was whining in my face to go outside.  What? she never needs to go out in the middle of the night.  Then I heard Maggie at 2:08.  She hasn't woken up during the night in forever, until the last 2 nights.  The first night she put herself back to sleep in a couple minutes, the next night she woke up twice, the first time I had to go in the second time she put herself back to sleep.  Last night I had to go in.  I don't know what was going on, but she was not falling back to sleep so I had to go in.  I rocked her for a bit.  She fell back to sleep right away in my arms, as soon as I put her in her bed she woke up crying and saying, "up, up, please".  So I started over, luckily the second time I put her down she stayed asleep.  By 2:48 I was back in bed.  I heard her again at 3:23.  I had to go back in, she went back to sleep on the first try this time thank goodness.  Then I woke up for no reason at 4:15, 5:30 and 6:00.  My alarm went off at 7, awesome.

It wasn't raining though so that was good.  I packed both of my arm bands, I have one that is more comfortable but is pretty open, the other one seems to be more protective, but is not very comfortable to wear.  I contemplated wearing my old shoes because there was some rain in the forecast, but after checking the weather channel app on my iPod touch I decided I would wear the new ones.

The race was at 9am but we got there at like 8:20.  I went to register because I hadn't yet.  The other people I was with had registered online.  We were one of like 10 people there.  They were out of shirts already, so I was bummed about that, but they said they would mark it on my registration and mail one to me, although they never asked my size so I doubt they will actually send it.

I started sweating on the walk back to the car to put our bags down.  It wasn't super hot (yet) but about 99% humidity.  I decided not to bring my hand held water bottle with me.  I don't drink much anyway and I would rather not carry it.  We lined up at around 5 till 9.   A voice over a loud speaker said that the race would be starting about 5 min late.   Then they sang the star spangled banner, that's when I noticed that the loud speaker was actually the CB radio speaker on the top of the pick up truck that was at the starting line.

The actual race started out ok.  I started my Nike+ when I hit the start line and about a minute and a half later I pushed the button to make sure I wasn't starting out too fast.  Nothing happened.....pushed it again....nothing.  Awesome, the music started, but it wasn't picking up any pace or distance.  I took off my armband and told me friend to go ahead.  I restarted the stupid thing and picked my pace back up.  Now I had no clue how far I had already gone or how much time was left.  When I got to the 1 mile mark I noticed a girl with a stop watch yelling out times so I decided to start my watch and then at least I would know what my time was.  She said 10:41 when I went past her.  I was happy with that and started my watch.

It was so humid I was having a hard time keeping my breath under control.  I just felt like I couldn't breathe at all.  Not.fun.  I slowed down a little because it was so hot.  I was feeling like a slow, old, hog.  Not exactly motivating.  Some chick was using me to pace her run/walk.  It was more like a sprint/walk.  She would sprint about 20 yards past me, then walk until I passed her, then she would sprint past me again.  This was super annoying, especially since I already wasn't feeling it.  Ugh! It felt like it took me 2 years to get to the second mile marker, and since I didn't know how far I had gone because of the stupid Nike+ snafu, I convinced myself that I had missed the sign and that I had to be getting close to 2.5 miles.  I was wrong.  At the 2 mile marker there was a lady taking pictures and yelling out times...kind of.  I don't think she took my picture, and she didn't say my time.  I looked at my watch and it said 63:15...I forgot that Maggie likes to push the buttons on my watch so it didn't start at 00:00. You have got to be kidding me.

Right after that I noticed the black wall of clouds coming quickly our way.  Although I don't know how they were moving at all because the was no wind moving AT ALL.  I was trying to decide what I would do with my iPod

I finally made it to the finish, the sign had blown down though.  There was a guy taking the bottom part of our numbers and I couldn't get mine off so I had to stand there and mess with it.  Then I accidentally gave him my raffle entry square thing and almost asked for it, but then I decided it didn't appear that the raffle was happening.  There were a few police cars around and a couple people.  I saw my friends, they were hiding behind a truck.  So we hid from the crazy rain while we waited for my friend's sister to finish.  We ran back to the car and then went home soaking wet.  I think I finished in somewhere around 35 minutes, which is the slowest I've run a 5k (race or not) in forever.  My iPod still works, thank goodness.  My brand new shoes are super soaked, probably ruined.  I wish I would've stayed in bed this morning.

I'm mad at myself and disappointed.  Oh well, the next one will be better I suppose.

4 comments:

  1. Sorry you didn't have a great run, but I've got to say that 35min-ish isn't bad. I'm thrilled when my 5k's are around that time!

    And I laughed at the ruined shoes part (sorry)... they might be wet, gross, and dirty, but they'll dry - eventually - and now they probably look loved. :)

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  2. Next time, ditch the watch/iPod/Nike+ and don't worry about fiddling with it and just RUN! After all, the event people are timing it so you'll get your time at the end. If you are worried about pace - if you are having a hard time breathing or gasping for air, you are probably running too fast so slow it down. Your next run will be more enjoyable if you just have fun and enjoy running instead of being upset that your Nike+ isn't working. Happy running!

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  3. And no worries about the shoes - they are definitely not ruined! I run in the rain all the time (and run in puddles, creeks) and know lots of people who do, and shoes are fine! Just make sure to take out the insoles and let them dry out before your next run. It is helpful to have 2 pairs of shoes so that you can swap them out after rainy runs.

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  4. Sorry you had a bad experience. If you want to feel a little better I'm working on my race report from Saturday. Not one of my better runs either. I always worry about my shoes. I ran the 2008 Portland Marathon and it rained from mile 6 on. My feet were soaked and squishing in my shoes by mile 11 but they somehow survived to be tortured further after I dried them out well :)

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