It was St. Patrick's Day yesterday-made corn beef and cabbage-check. Made soda bread-check. Listened to Irish music-check. Read an article in People about the top Irish celebrities-check. Ran a 10K -wait.
That's right I ran a 10K. This is not my first 10K but it's the first one that I trained for. I've had a love hate relationship with running my whole life. Back to the times in high school when I would run the Wantagh Parkway with the winter track team to stay in shape for cycling. Then when the kids were little because it was free and effective. Then again over the last few years which ironically I took up on a trip to NY to ward off all the food I was eating.
Plus I'm the world's SLOWEST runner. My third graders run faster than me.
I won't bore you with stories of my running training, or the endless gadgets and outfits I've bought -(it always comes back to shopping doesn't it?)
There were some roadblocks in the training, you know besides procrastination and whining. Along the way Rob hurt something in his leg and had to take three weeks off to get acupuncture. I ate my way through New York and developed an allergy requiring an inhaler, and I procrastinated and whined my way through a training schedule.
Race day came and of course it was freezing cold which meant I spent 1 hour in the car deciding what to wear on my head. Then there were the bathroom issues. I really don't have a phobia against porta potties-especially in Los Gatos, but I had to balance my need to drink water with my need to not be able to go to the bathroom for over an hour. I passed up the line of 50 people in favor of a good place on the starting line. I hoped for the best.
So here's how I run one of these things. I hope my IPhone music works and that my Nike voice will not freeze. I hope I don't make any wrong turns. I hope that the really old people and the really over weight ones don't pass me. I constantly look at my wrist pacer thing and obsess with the fact that if I keep going this fast I will probably have to crawl the last three miles. I tell myself what are you thinking-you could be celebrating St. Pats in a pub.
But things were going good until at mile 4 when I stopped for a beverage-I love when they give you water. All of a sudden a ton of people I'ld never seen before started passing me. Turns out they were running a 5k and on mile1.
There was no Irish music for our St. Pat's day celebration this year-except Dexys Midnight Runners singing Come On Eileen on my Ipod-don't laugh. But the rain held out and I ran sooo super fast. Rob actually finished 4th in his age group. He's talking about going pro.
As for the event. I liked it. The Coconut water company was there and I came home with tons of free coconut water. They gave me a new shirt. I got a medal. I set a personal best. They never really told you how far you had gone or marked the course but Nike took care of that.
However, the next day we received an email saying those on the 5K and 1/2 marathon courses were all sent the wrong way. That's funny. That's really funny.
Next up Bay to Breakers-where you run really fast to avoid the naked people.
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