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By the time I got down to Lake Park, the rain had tapered off to a drizzle again and, from the parking situation, it looked like half the free world had showed up to go for a run. I did make a last minute decision to leave everything (read: phone, iPod, etc.) in the car and only carry my car key with me. This would prove to be a very good move.
I jogged the 4 blocks from where I parked up to my tri team's tent, said hi, and headed off in search of my bib/timing chip/t-shirt. Once that was out of the way, I was left with the problem of what to do with the t-shirt. I didn't have enough time to run it back to my car, so I ended up tying it to one of the cross poles in the roof of the team tent!
The IronCheerleader gathered his herd and gave us some last minute advice: go out slow, this is not a PR course so forget about it, the monster hill is at about 1.25 miles, and HAVE FUN!
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The gun went off and I forced myself to hold back. I know I could have easily run a sub-9:00 minute first mile, but I would have died on the Ravine Road hill. I settled in around a 9:45 pace and focused on trying to avoid the larger puddles as much as possible. This was an exercise in futility since my feet were pretty much soaked after half a mile. I rounded the corner onto Lincoln Memorial Drive and let my pace drop a little as gravity took over on the only downhill of the entire race. I hit Mile 1 about 2/3 of the way down the hill at an even 9:30. I probably should have pulled back on my pace a little for the rest of the downhill, but I knew that the evil of Ravine Road lay ahead so I banked as much time as I could leading up to it. As I made the turn onto Ravine Road, it was drizzling a little harder, but I was too focused on running up that hill as long as I could. About half way up, I needed to drop to a walk for about a minute to catch my breath. After I recovered a little, I ran the rest of the way up the hill. Just as I topped out on the hill, lightening lit up the sky torrents of rain began pouring. Everyone was instantly soaked to the bone. I could have bailed right there, since I wasn't too far from my car at that point, but I decided that quitting this far in was equivalent to a Crybaby Moment, so I kept running along with just about everyone else. The rest of the course was mercifully flat, but the pouring rain definitely added a serious challenge - both physically and mentally. I hit Mile 2 and my Garmin flashed 9:41 for it. Okay, not what I was hoping for, but after the misery of the hill, it was reasonable. The last mile was a killer. The rain somehow picked up (how that's possible, I don't even know) and the wind whipping off the lake was freezing cold. I started to have a few thoughts of 'I don't want to be doing this anymore.' and 'What the %#@! am I doing out here?' My pace really started to suffer. Finally, I reminded myself that there were to be no more crybaby moments and that I was dangerously close to being a crybaby - this last mile could suck for 10 minutes if I ran or longer if I stopped to walk. I ran. I hit Mile 3 at 10:00 even. I took the final turn and saw the race clock ticking away in front of me and I sprinted toward it.
Official Finish: 30:13. Not a PR by any means, but considering the hill, the conditions, and the fact that this was my third race in seven days - it was much better than I expected to do.
I worked my way back to the team tent, drank a watery beer while standing out in some seriously ugly weather, and then jogged back to my car. I toweled off as best I could (so happy I'd thought to shove a beach towel in the car, covered the seat with said towel and headed home - shivering all the way!
At the moment (2 days later), I'm still trying to dry out my running shoes since I need them this weekend!
On the plus side...you probably weren't nasty sweaty by the end of the race.... LOL And rainwater is supposed to make your hair nice and soft....
ReplyDeleteI was definitely sweating, but it was pretty impossible to tell where the sweat ended and the rain began!
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