No PR for me today, but that's alright. It probably would be better if I hadn't had a party last night and hadn't then stayed up until 11:30! I suppose this is a minimalist footwear (in a caveman costume) PR, though. This is the longest I've run in the VFFs (plus I parked kind of far away, so I ran to the start. And I was running late!). I didn't wear the dread wig (that was for last night at the partay), but the leopard outfit seemed to be a hit. Lots of people, lots of running.
I started off with the 8:30 pace group (1:51 for a half marathon, my PR is 1:50:04) and stayed with them for 6 miles. I have never run with a pace group before. I found the pacer irritating, though, because his pace wasn't very even (I get that starting off when it's crowded makes your first mile a bit slower, but don't run a 9 minute mile and then try to make up time by running two consecutive 8's, ok? Just sayin). I was getting weird semi-cramps in my shoulders and my right hip felt a little wonky. The hip thing worried me because I haven't had any joint issues at all since starting with the VFFs. I decided to slow down and take in the leaves and the costumes. Not all the leaves have fallen yet (the yellow ones are spectacular this weekend) and this was a costume run (more so for the 5k than the half, but there were lots of costumes to see). I stupidly had some evil blue powerade about mile 8 and then had a mile and a half of stomach cramps. Yuck. That stuff is of the devil.
TODL was waiting for me at mile 9 with her dog (who was wearing cat ears!). She said I didn't look very happy (blue powerade), but I was happy to see her and the dog was happy to see me. Off again...it was cold and blustery (36ish and the wind off the lakes was a bit nasty) and I wanted to be done. I had some kick left and passed about eight people running the last 0.1 mile to the finish line.
1:59:58, just squeaked in under the wire.
As soon as I was done and wandered the mile back to my car and got some socks and regular shoes on and my toes thawed a bit, I realized that I'd had a good time and everything was right with the world.
I got to have coffee with the Catholic-school-girl-garbed M and TODL. All in all a good day. Plus, we get an hour extra sleep tonight. Bonus!
2 comments:
and what kind of doggie??? (i know I'm a weird friend with weird question priorities...)
i LOVE that you ran in a cavewoman suit.
xoxo
Dusty is a 3-legged shepherd mix. She has the cutest face.
My cavewoman costume seemed to be a hit with the straight boys, even. Weird.
Post a Comment