Yep. I'm in sucky running shape. There is no doubt about that.
Still, though, it was a great day and a great race.
I drove to the race site with the fam. They dropped me off and then went to IHOP. It was cold! Too cold to actually stay and watch such a long race. Anwyay. I found my running friends and got caught up. I went to the bathroom about 10 times and then we went out for a short warm up. I only did about a mile. I haven't run more than 10 miles at one time since Thanksgiving. I didn't want to wear myself out in the warm up!
I took the race out fast. Too fast. I actually THOUGHT I was being conservative. Alas. I'm not the running goddess I was a few short months ago. Anyway, I held 7:15's for two miles, but soon slowed to 7:20s and then 7:40s. At about 4.5 miles I really started to feel tired--far more tired than I ever remember feeling in a race of just 9.3 miles. I got passed quite a bit, having taken it out fast and slowed way down, but I was okay with that. It just wasn't the day to fight for the win.
Luckily, I had on my Nano complete with a NEW racing playlist I had created the night before. Here are a few of the fab. songs I listened to as I got slower and slower:
Hit Me With Your Best Shot--Pat Benatar
C'm Feel the Noize--Quiet Riot
Like a Prayer--Madonna
Working for the Weekend--Loverboy
Let's Go Crazy--Prince
Rock the Casbah--The Clash
Don't You Want Me--The Human League
Panama--Van Halen
Any Way You Want It--Journey
Maniac--(you know, from Flashdance)
Ice Ice Baby--Vanilla Ice
Juke Box Hero--Foreigner
Here I Go Again--Whitesnake
Add it Up--Violent Femmes
Quite a mix, huh? You must remember that I was a young, top-40 loving teen in the early 80's. My first concert was Loverboy.
Remember the red leather pants? Oh yeah...So. Back to the race. I struggled on valiently and duked it out at the end with a man in his late 50s. He was awesome. He just keep saying, "You got it! Don't let the old man beat ya!" as we sprinted in. Good guy. My family was there at the end, shivering in their boots. They said, "Go Mom!" and then, "Can we go inside now?"
I finished in 1:10:14, 7:33 pace. Last year I finished the same course in 7:05 pace. Oh boy. Still, I was first in my age group and won an ice scraper for the car. A good, practical prize for a race entitled the Frostbite, don't you think?
I feel bummed about my running, but I'm trying to keep up-beat. I'm simply not going to be as fast as I was if I focus all my energy on three disciplines as opposed to just the run. I have been running only about 15 miles a week in zone 1 for months now. Of course I'm not going to race as I did last year, when I was training for Boston and running 40 plus miles a week and doing plenty of speed and tempo work. Sigh.
When I got home I relaxed and played with the kids a bit. Then I got on the death trainer. Cait had me riding for 90 min. after the race. Yikes. I was SPENT before I even got on the bike. It was kind of horrible. But I survived. My ass is killing me. I need some Advil.
Thanks for reading!
10 comments:
Great playlist! My iPod has quite a few 80s songs on it, too - they're great for running.
Sorry you weren't happy with your race time, but I think those are still some pretty good splits - and congrats on first place in your age group : )
An Ice Scrapper as a prize? That's hilarious!
Congrats on getting out there and cookin'!
Nice playlist!
holy crap you're still f*$king fast as hell! youre super speedy!
lovin the playlist...makes me want to revamp mine!
Hey there! Wanted to letcha know I have a lot of those same songs on my ipod - and maybe all of them on my itunes. :-) 80s queen here.
I also had to say GOOD GOD, WOMAN! You are my hero! I cannot believe all the training you do and the races you compete in. One should be so lucky as to be anywhere NEAR your shape and ability. High five to you, and know that I aspire to be like you....
I can tell from your playlist that we are contemporaries.
But I can tell from your time that you are way faster than I am, which means, like moth to flame, I would be compelled to try to train with you, only to suffer the weekly humiliation of being well and truly "chicked."
dude, who the eff is lunchrunner? fast splits on saturday for sure!!! you going?
hope your butt is feeling better..
7:33..very good pace.
nice playlist..pat benatar???wow...
thanks for the kind words on my blog on casey.
who pimped out your header for your blog????very nicely done
That race was FREEZING. I thought that surely I'd end up looking like the snowman on the t-shirt by the end of it.
"I held 7:15's for two miles, but soon slowed to 7:20s and then 7:40s." Oh my goodness! I can't even believe that's slow! I couldn't run 100 meters that fast if my life depended on it! You're a rockstar!
As far as the Peaks to Portland, I'm NOT sure that it's that weekend. I can't quite remember where I got the date from, so I could be wrong. Either way, I will need to be getting in some quality open water swims come summertime, so maybe we can work something out. When's your next race? You know where I'm going to be, let me know next time we're going to coincide.
Your playlist brings back lot's of my own memories to be sure.
In the summer of 81 (I was 19) I went to see ZZtop play at the cape cod colosseum. It was a 4th of july concert. The parking lot was mostly dirt, and there were dozens of bastard 4wd pickups festooned with confederate flags and drunken rednecks making bogs out of the giant mud puddles. We had been there since noon for an 8 pm show.
Into the colosseum bled 5000 drunken fans - to be greeted by Loverboy.
Do you see how this presented a problem?
They were booed offstage after 3 songs. It was like the scene from the Blues Brothers when the band was getting all manner of debris hurled at them. Unfortunately, Loverboy wasn't behind chickenwire. Fortunately, they didn't let any glass bottles in.
Good times.
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