hold your breath, and play the part, race towards the finish line
This morning was the Pittsburgh Marathon 5K event, and xuth and I both ran in it. Last year I was part of a relay team, but I didn't register early enough this year and all the Marathon events except for the 5K sold out before I remembered that I wanted to run. So the 5K it was!
I hadn't planned on doing anything spectacular here, as it had already been a pretty leg-intensive week for me on the bike, having done not just the regular commute to work, but a couple days of biking to appointments, another to a friend's house in Morningside, and then another to downtown (and home again) just yesterday to pick up race packets. But hey, the fun was in the doing and the getting better, so I figured that I could just pretend it was a fast training run with 1320 of my closest friends.
Xuth and I got up stupid early (after a poor night's sleep, ugh) and biked downtown (in a bit of a hurry, since we left the house later than I wanted, but fortunately I had planned in plenty of buffer time). Parking a block from the start and finish lines was a cinch (compared to all those poor people in cars), so we could just change into running gear and join the pack for an 8am start. Weather was nice, if slightly humid (and warm, good thing it was early in the morning).
Xuth jumped ahead of me from the start, so I ran by myself, but I set myself a good pace and kept it up successfully the entire time, bumping it up on the last big downhill, and then pushing into a desperate sprint for the last couple blocks, as the announcer was just saying "here's your chance to break a 10 minute mile, if you finish in the next 45 seconds!" And since I'd started towards the middle of the starting pack, and my chip time was a minute off the clock, that meant my final chip time was 29:41, which is by far the fastest I've ever run a 5k. Woo, go me! I'm quite happy with that.
We had plans to go out for lunch afterwards, except my intended lunch place didn't open (I thought) until 11am, and even after wandering around, cooling off, recovering my jelly legs, chatting with a couple friends, and getting our picture taken, we still had another 2 hours to kill. So we hopped back on the bikes and explored some of the recently updated bike trails along the South Side, wandered through REI to browse their clearance racks, and finally ended up at Local Bar + Kitchen, where I had a humongous, delicious burger and fried donuts.
Then there was more biking home, including up All The Hills In The World (at least it felt like it). Total distances for today: Run - 3.1 miles. Bike - 23.8 miles. Ow my legs. Now I am home and get to sit on my butt and not move for the rest of the day.
Oh, who am I kidding, the gardens need planting and mulching and the grass needs mowing and the weather is so beautiful I couldn't sit still if I tried. But no more running or riding! Definitely none of that. And some part of today will involve a hammock and a cold beer.
4:30pm - Edited to add: I have determined that I am lightly sunburned from all the biking around today, so I'm going to do the responsible thing and retire from outdoor chores early. Guess that leaves me no choice but to sit around on the couch with a beer.
I hadn't planned on doing anything spectacular here, as it had already been a pretty leg-intensive week for me on the bike, having done not just the regular commute to work, but a couple days of biking to appointments, another to a friend's house in Morningside, and then another to downtown (and home again) just yesterday to pick up race packets. But hey, the fun was in the doing and the getting better, so I figured that I could just pretend it was a fast training run with 1320 of my closest friends.
Xuth and I got up stupid early (after a poor night's sleep, ugh) and biked downtown (in a bit of a hurry, since we left the house later than I wanted, but fortunately I had planned in plenty of buffer time). Parking a block from the start and finish lines was a cinch (compared to all those poor people in cars), so we could just change into running gear and join the pack for an 8am start. Weather was nice, if slightly humid (and warm, good thing it was early in the morning).
Xuth jumped ahead of me from the start, so I ran by myself, but I set myself a good pace and kept it up successfully the entire time, bumping it up on the last big downhill, and then pushing into a desperate sprint for the last couple blocks, as the announcer was just saying "here's your chance to break a 10 minute mile, if you finish in the next 45 seconds!" And since I'd started towards the middle of the starting pack, and my chip time was a minute off the clock, that meant my final chip time was 29:41, which is by far the fastest I've ever run a 5k. Woo, go me! I'm quite happy with that.
We had plans to go out for lunch afterwards, except my intended lunch place didn't open (I thought) until 11am, and even after wandering around, cooling off, recovering my jelly legs, chatting with a couple friends, and getting our picture taken, we still had another 2 hours to kill. So we hopped back on the bikes and explored some of the recently updated bike trails along the South Side, wandered through REI to browse their clearance racks, and finally ended up at Local Bar + Kitchen, where I had a humongous, delicious burger and fried donuts.
Then there was more biking home, including up All The Hills In The World (at least it felt like it). Total distances for today: Run - 3.1 miles. Bike - 23.8 miles. Ow my legs. Now I am home and get to sit on my butt and not move for the rest of the day.
Oh, who am I kidding, the gardens need planting and mulching and the grass needs mowing and the weather is so beautiful I couldn't sit still if I tried. But no more running or riding! Definitely none of that. And some part of today will involve a hammock and a cold beer.
4:30pm - Edited to add: I have determined that I am lightly sunburned from all the biking around today, so I'm going to do the responsible thing and retire from outdoor chores early. Guess that leaves me no choice but to sit around on the couch with a beer.