13.1 miles.
All I can say is ... YAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!! WHY did I DO that?! So much pain and torment. Not to mention I got beat by my wife! That's right! I never lose to her! Ah well, it was a lesson in humility I guess.
I was up late the night before transferring music from Cam's computer to mine and vice-versa. Also I was listening to a sermon by Mark Cahill called "It's Not Blind Faith" which if you're a believer or unbeliever it is pretty amazing the amount of evidence there is for the truth of the Bible without even opening it up! I probably managed 5-1/2 to 6 hours of sleep which stunk.
Race morning was chilly, we went to the start about an hour before we needed to be there and there wasn't really much going on. We walked around some, chatted with people, then went to the car for our final moments in warm clothes and then headed to the starting line. The color guard fired their gun[s] and we were off!
We were pretty jovial the first couple of miles. I had the feeling that a lot of people were extremely nervous, which was weird because we were running with the 5K and 15Kers too. I mean 3.1 miles? Seriously guys, it's not that much. You run for a half hour and then you're done. At any rate, I go "Why do I get the feeling that we're the only happy people here?" and a few people chuckled, so I hope I lifted their spirits a bit. After I'd say about 3 miles Brynn and I each ate some of our gels.
I was surprised at how good the vanilla one tasted. It tasted like cake frosting! It was really good. I didn't realize that Brynn had only brought enough for herself [which makes sense, I didn't ask her to bring some for me] so that would be my last bit of nutrition until the finish line other than heavily watered gatorade at the aid stations.
After about a half mile I checked my heart rate and I was in the 170s which was fine, but I wanted to stay in the low 160s just to be sure I had enough gas in the tank for the whole race. I peeled back from Brynn and Steve and tried to trot along at an easy pace. I figured I'd just catch up to them later on or they would walk or something. Then the side stitch set in. You know that feeling when you're overexerting yourself and you get that butcher-knife-in-the-side sort of cramp? Yep, got that one. So I started walking a little bit and tried to manage my breathing to stave it off. Finally it went away after what seemed like 5 minutes of walking, but it would continue to haunt me the remainder of the race.
By this time I was probably a half mile behind the other two. They were small specks when we were both on the straight-aways and I just kept telling myself I had plenty of race to go [I hadn't even hit the turn-around yet!]. I began to steadily close the gap when my side stitch would subside and lengthen it again when it would return. I came within probably 300 yards at one point and I think the fear struck Brynn. I never did get any closer to them. Steve even stopped on the curb and greased up his toes to prevent blisters and I ran by him, then he caught up to me and ran with me for a little bit, then he took off and caught up to Brynn.
With about 3 miles left I decided to put on the bump music and try to overtake the two yahoos who didn't seem to want to wait for me [hee hee! can't blame 'em!] I changed to the songs I put on my iPod from Cam's computer [Jay-Z and Linkin Park] and started to pick up the pace. My heart rate reached as high as 197 beats per minute. That's over 3 times per second! I still never did catch them. Pretty humbling if you ask me.
All things considered I'm satisfied with my run. I couldn't control my side stitch if I wanted to and I know that hindered my performance [it's only the third time this YEAR I've had one, too.] I still didn't allow that to keep me from bringing my A game and putting it all out on the pavement. I didn't stop when I knew I had something left and I'm proud of that.
Next up: Right now it's looking like the "River Run" [not sure if that's the official name] in Wichita in May. Maybe we can convince some of Brynn's friends and family to do it with us!
I was up late the night before transferring music from Cam's computer to mine and vice-versa. Also I was listening to a sermon by Mark Cahill called "It's Not Blind Faith" which if you're a believer or unbeliever it is pretty amazing the amount of evidence there is for the truth of the Bible without even opening it up! I probably managed 5-1/2 to 6 hours of sleep which stunk.
Race morning was chilly, we went to the start about an hour before we needed to be there and there wasn't really much going on. We walked around some, chatted with people, then went to the car for our final moments in warm clothes and then headed to the starting line. The color guard fired their gun[s] and we were off!
We were pretty jovial the first couple of miles. I had the feeling that a lot of people were extremely nervous, which was weird because we were running with the 5K and 15Kers too. I mean 3.1 miles? Seriously guys, it's not that much. You run for a half hour and then you're done. At any rate, I go "Why do I get the feeling that we're the only happy people here?" and a few people chuckled, so I hope I lifted their spirits a bit. After I'd say about 3 miles Brynn and I each ate some of our gels.
I was surprised at how good the vanilla one tasted. It tasted like cake frosting! It was really good. I didn't realize that Brynn had only brought enough for herself [which makes sense, I didn't ask her to bring some for me] so that would be my last bit of nutrition until the finish line other than heavily watered gatorade at the aid stations.
After about a half mile I checked my heart rate and I was in the 170s which was fine, but I wanted to stay in the low 160s just to be sure I had enough gas in the tank for the whole race. I peeled back from Brynn and Steve and tried to trot along at an easy pace. I figured I'd just catch up to them later on or they would walk or something. Then the side stitch set in. You know that feeling when you're overexerting yourself and you get that butcher-knife-in-the-side sort of cramp? Yep, got that one. So I started walking a little bit and tried to manage my breathing to stave it off. Finally it went away after what seemed like 5 minutes of walking, but it would continue to haunt me the remainder of the race.
By this time I was probably a half mile behind the other two. They were small specks when we were both on the straight-aways and I just kept telling myself I had plenty of race to go [I hadn't even hit the turn-around yet!]. I began to steadily close the gap when my side stitch would subside and lengthen it again when it would return. I came within probably 300 yards at one point and I think the fear struck Brynn. I never did get any closer to them. Steve even stopped on the curb and greased up his toes to prevent blisters and I ran by him, then he caught up to me and ran with me for a little bit, then he took off and caught up to Brynn.
With about 3 miles left I decided to put on the bump music and try to overtake the two yahoos who didn't seem to want to wait for me [hee hee! can't blame 'em!] I changed to the songs I put on my iPod from Cam's computer [Jay-Z and Linkin Park] and started to pick up the pace. My heart rate reached as high as 197 beats per minute. That's over 3 times per second! I still never did catch them. Pretty humbling if you ask me.
All things considered I'm satisfied with my run. I couldn't control my side stitch if I wanted to and I know that hindered my performance [it's only the third time this YEAR I've had one, too.] I still didn't allow that to keep me from bringing my A game and putting it all out on the pavement. I didn't stop when I knew I had something left and I'm proud of that.
Next up: Right now it's looking like the "River Run" [not sure if that's the official name] in Wichita in May. Maybe we can convince some of Brynn's friends and family to do it with us!