Running is......

Unpredictable. It's Monday and I'm finally sitting down to write about my run. I wanted to do it sooner but my sister was here visiting and I wanted to wait until she left so now that she's gone, I'm writting. Hmmmmmm, where do I begin? and just so you know I'm not giving excuses, just looking for explanations. Let's see, Friday night I hosted a "carb load" dinner. I had 4 friends (including my sister) and their families come over to eat spaghetti. It was fun night and helped get us excited about the next day. On Saturday, I really debated about whether or not to eat because I can get cramps so easily, but with two hours before the race I thought I'd be fine, after all it was just a banana. It had rained the whole day before but at start time things had dried out, temporarily. About 2 miles in, the sprinkles started and stayed with us until the end. It was actually very nice and refreshing. Better than being too hot.

One thing I've found is it's very easy to start off too fast. Because your running along the river, the width of the road isn't very wide so you want to try to get ahead of the crowd to find you own space. I'm usually a stronger finisher than starter so I think I pushed a bit too hard in the beginning but thats ok, it was working until about mile 7, I needed some energy so I ate a GU (chocolate, of course!) Now I use these all the time when doing my long runs and have never had a problem but at about mile 9 I started getting a side stitch which quickly evolved into a full-blown crap, I mean cramp, (I felt like crap) I just could not run through it. I wanted to cry. So I had to stop to walk. For the next 2 miles I walked/ran until I finally felt it had subsided enough to speed up and finish. It's very depressing to see people run past you that you have already passed. The last half mile I see my sister, she came back to cheer me on. She gave me the encouragement I needed to make it up a slight hill and finish strong. I know that I should really be happy with my time, considering I did better than last year but because I didn't FEEL my best during the last part of the run, I'm just disappointed. Had I not stopped to walk I think I could have finished 4-5 minutes earlier. My chip time was 2:04:40. My Garmin time was 2:03:04. Here's something I learned from my sister. My Garmin also said I ran 13.16 miles (ooh and burned 1049 =) calories!) When I mentioned that she said that they have to measure the shortest distance on a course so if your running the outside you'll be running farther. Now I understood when I passed a volunteer saying "run a tight race" what he meant. Hug those curves. All in all, it was great day. That's the thing with running, you just never now how you'll do until you get out there and do it. By the way, I had the cramp all day and on Sunday I could still feel it. I'm wondering if I pulled a muscle.

I loved having my sister there, it was our first race we've done together. Of course, she did awesome 1:49:51. I think she'll make this an annual trip, she enjoyed the course so much.

A shout out to my SIL Kim who ran her own (and first) 1/2 marathon in Connecticut. She kicked butt with a time of 2:09 Fantastic!!


Question? Why is it that everything breaks down at the same time? It started with our vacuum then our cars needing maintenance, then a broken microwave, a camera and now when I went to use my computer ( I'm using my hubby's) I get a black screen saying disk error. I don't think that's a good sign. And No, of course, I didn't get around to backing up my pictures yet. I'm glad you can't hear me screaming.