39:27.
as part of our training, lori and i decided to run the hanover harvest festival 5K on august 5th. it was a little less distance than what we were meant to be running at that time, so we felt confident and it would give us a chance to get used to running together. and on top of that, we figured it would give us real race experience so we would know what to do when we got around to our 10K. you know, like that you're not supposed to pull off the tags on the bottom of your number or they won't have anything to identify you at the end of the race. i did that. but that was just the end.lori and i planned to meet at 8 that fated saturday morning, so we could warm up together. i took a non-mapquested route, so i got there really early. i checked in, ate a banana, ripped the tags off my number and read all the literature they give you in your race bag. as it was creeping up on eight, i decided to switch from flip flops to my running shoes so i was ready when lori came.
huh. where are my shoes? seriously. where the flying flip are my shoes?
what ensued after this revelation, was a race home, attempting to make the 50 minute drive there and back to the hanover fire station happen in 35.
i didn't make it. it was more like 45, but only because i got stuck behind a sweet little old lady out for a morning drive going 45. and also, because it's really hard to drive that fast.
but i made it to hanover and as i was waiting at the stopsign, i saw lori go running by and we waved. having put my shoes on during the drive back, i hopped right out with my mp3 player and my number and started running. at the edge of the parking lot, this lady in a suburban obviously couldn't tell that i was already a bit late for the race stopped me to ask me where the end of the race was. when i told her the general direction, she asked for more clarification. so i just ran away after waving in the same general direction i had waved before. truth to be told, i had no idea where the end of the race was. i hadn't been there yet.
i had half expected lori to wait for me, since we were mostly running it to find our mutual pace. and because i would have waited. so i wanted to be sensitive to the fact that she'd already started, so i ran hard to catch up. up a hill. some guy at the first mile marker told me i was at 13 something. and since i started at least five minutes late, i ran the fastest mile i've ever run. and then i walked. because my body is not meant to run so fast and it was evident i had nothing to catch up to. i walked until i saw the 10 year old kid ahead of me. no way was the kid going to beat me. so i ran for a while more. and then i had to walk again. because i couldn't relax. it was always rushed. i would run for a while, then walk. then get mad that i hadn't gotten to sleep in and that i spent twenty bucks on a race i wasn't enjoying, so i'd run again. then i'd walk because i figured, what the heck? i don't care when i finish. and my ankle hurts. (i guess i didn't mention that i was running on a sprained ankle...) then the lady walking with her baby in a stroller starts to pass me, so i walk harder before giving in to running again. i finally finished to little fan fare, had the small mess with the tags and ate a few rolls.
mostly, the whole experience, while proving that the funny i had lost was hanging out on august 5th, made me determined to finish the 10K without walking.
so i quit running. i'm trying to let my ankle heal as much as possible before saturday morning. this is what i figure: i finished 106th in hanover. last year, there were 24 finishers in the maple lake race. i cannot do worse than i did in hanover.
posted by julie @ 3:23 PM
2 Comments:
Hey...that's no way to get your funny back!
Look, there are positives here...mostly about your determination.
Lots of folks would have ditched the race when they did not have their shoes, or not run with an ankle hurting.
Keep it up. You're doing yourself proud.
. . . running for the funny . . . you got it . . .
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