The Shameless Whiner: July 2011

There are lots of reasons to run. Some are selfish and some aren’t. On my selfish list are reasons such as: I don’t want to get any fatter, I need to get rid of some stress, and I need to have some ‘me’ time. This year some of my non selfish reasons are to run in honor of others. It is Pioneer Day weekend. I really wanted to do something physical in honor of the pioneers who sacrificed so much for their faith. It is truly inspirational to me. I don’t have the time to take a four day trek across Oklahoma like the youth of our church did earlier this month so I found the Sizzling Summer Half Marathon on the day before pioneer day-PERFECT!!! One evening I was on the race website looking up some information and noticed that the race would be benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). This happened to be about the same time that we learned one of the kids in our congregation has Leukemia. He is a nine year old boy nicknamed Bear. I saw his pictures on facebook and was so impressed with his high spirits. He is all smiles while being connected to hundreds of probes and even made chemo therapy fun by ‘IV surfing’. I wanted to make this race a double devotional in honor of Bear’s fight and in gratitude for the Pioneers. In my search to make a difference for Bear I found the Team in Training group and started training with them and raising money for LLS. One of my fundraising campaigns was the “Build –A-Racer” workshop. It was sort of a two in one. The first part was a haircut. An extreme haircut and the second part was opening up my race ‘outfit’ for a vote. Unfortunately, the race outfit segment was a bit of a flop. I am thinking it was probably a blessing in disguise. I have been having visions of a sweaty electric blue hair color spray cocktail dripping in my eyes and bloody chafing wounds from angel wing straps under my arms. In honor of all ten voters in my campaign, I really wanted to do something. I started to make a tutu to race in when some advice from the wise running mama’s helped me to see the light. I saw the words chafe and arms in the same sentence and reconsidered. 13 miles is a long way to have my arms scraping against sand paper- I mean tulle. So, I decided to go back to the original reasons I registered for the race and ironed FIGHT LIKE A BEAR on the back of my shirt.
It was a hot day for a race. When we left the house in Weatherford at 5:30 am it was already 82 degrees. When we got to River Legacy Park in Arlington, the packet pick up line was long and moving slow. The start/finish line wasn’t set up yet and apparently the water stations weren’t either. Unfortunately, this lack of preparation/organization caused the race to start thirty minutes late and we didn’t start until 8am. The issues didn’t stop there. There were no mile or course markers. Most of the 10k participants ran extra miles because there was no sign or course marshal to direct them to turn around. There was a lot of confusion on the course in general. In fact, the word is that the half marathon was about one mile short. As disappointing as it is, I believe it may be true. I finished in 2:44:57 and while this is nearly seven minutes slower than my first half marathon, the heat was an energy drain and about half way through the race I was projecting a three hour finish.
Blunders aside, it was a good experience. The course was beautiful and mostly shady. There were some hills but they honestly didn’t phase me. I didn’t feel any more tired on a hill than on any other part of the course. I guess all those hill night workouts are paying off! It was the heat that was my ultimate nemesis. Of course, I started out too quickly. Classic blunder! I knew it was going to be rough in the heat so my plan all along was to do the race in run/walk intervals. I started out with intervals of 5:1 minutes. About halfway through I dropped it down to 4:1 and by the end I was down to 3:1 and an occasional liberal walk break! It was really difficult without the mile markers so I had to just keep going from one walk break to the next. Toward the end it was getting more and more difficult to pick up and run after the walk breaks. When I found myself really wanting to quit I thought of Bear with all the testing and chemo he has to endure and I thought of the trek kids pushing and pulling their handcarts in the heat of the day and of the pioneers who left their homes in the East and walked across the plains burying husbands and children and love ones along the way. Certainly if they can endure all of that, I can run for three minutes! Even if I was aiming for a PR, nothing could have stopped me from greeting the cutest water hander-outer of all time. He was so devoted to his responsibilities that he handed me the cup and ran back to the table to restock. Excuse me! Mommy needs a hug and a kiss!!! Apparently he was very frustrated when runners wouldn’t take his water. I think the racing bug has set in with him. I was never so happy to see the finish line and just as I picked up the pace to get over the line, my left calf muscle cramped up. Ouch!! I had to run the last few steps with my foot flexed. I visited the massage tent in the post race area. I thought he was trying to kill me it hurt so badly. But, it did the trick and it didn’t bother me for the rest of the day or on my recovery run this morning. He suggested I look into magnesium supplements and advised that I do plenty of moving the rest of the day and take in plenty of fluids. I am glad that I took on the challenge of this race with all its imperfections. It is what ultimately led me to my involvement with Team in Training. The fundraising is stressful but, being part of something charitable is very fulfilling. I am really enjoying being part of the running community in The Woodlands. I have made some great friends and I know my fall race times will reflect the improvements I have made and will continue to make from the help of my new friends and coaches. I will just stay away from inaugural events for a while (and late start summer races)!