Saturday, March 13, 2010

Making a Run For It

I woke up Saturday morning geared up to do the St. Patrick's Day Run of Luck 7K Run in Evansville. I needed to get there a little early to do my late registration and so Leandra could get her volunteer assignment.

Being that I am not a runner and it was a little chilly, I wasn't really sure what to wear. Most of my clothing is very the gym or bking so I had to figure out what I could use. I ended up wearing my long legged biking bibs, which aren't padded and a pair of short over those. On the top half, I have a long sleeved t-shirt with a short sleeved shirt on top. I tied on my bandana, slipped on my shoes and a pair of light gloves and I was ready to go.

We had to make an emergency run to Target to get a pair of sunglasses. I couldn't find mine anywhere. It wasn't sunny (saw no sun the entire day), but I like having them on. It helps me to focus forward and mask any pain.

The Evansville Bicycle Club had a booth in the exhibit hall so Leandra and I met up with the volunteers once I was registered. I didn' get a t-shirt, but they knocked $5 off my late registration fee so it all evened out. I put up my tracking chip and was ready to go. Leandra headed off to her intersection with Di Holland, one of my EBC buds.

I was running with Jeremy, a guy that I work with, who originally brought up the idea to run. I met up with him in the exhibit hall before we headed outside. It hadn't really warmed up much. The sky was overcast and it felt like it would rain at any minute. It's amazing how the sun can raise the temperature about 10 degrees...but no luck with that today.

We found a good spot to sit and wait for the start. I had been contemplating whether or not I should bring some music to play while I was running. Jeremy had done so, but I opted not to for two reasons:
  1. No Pockets
  2. Ironman competitors can't use headphones/music, so I wouldn't either.
The gun sounded and we were off...but not really. We had to wait for everyone in front of us to cross over the sensor to activate their chip. We probably were in a slow walk for about 30 seconds until we got to the sensor and could run. From that point on, it was a mob of people zig zagging around the slower folk trying to fight for some space. Eventually, a lane for the walkers was started they turned off from our route.

The route started out downtown and then went out along the river front. Eventually it turned back in and went down some of neighborhood streets back towards downtown and the end of the run.

Leandra and Di had a pretty prime spot. They were at the intersection where the runners turned out to hit the meat of the route, but it was also the point where everytone turned back in to hit the finish line. Basically, I got to see them twice.

I had been hoping to finish the route in 45 minutes. About halfway through, my shins started tightening up. It wasn't bad, but the constant pounding onthe asphalt was taking its toll. I knew that I would have issues. Most of my running is on a treadmill which has some give to it. My pace was slowing down it deal with it...I was hoping that I would still make my goal.

I saw Leandra and Di at the turn back point and I knew I was close to done. I was hoping to finish in front of Jeremy, but he ended up catching up towards the end and passing me with about three blocks to go. I crossed the finish line relieved that I could finally slow down, but I wasn't expecting to have to come to a full stop so my chip could be cut off of my shoe. I was worried about cramping, but was able to get moving quickly and walk it off. My final time was 43 minutes, 40 seconds. Goal accomplished!

I'm happy I finished the run, but it was a bit of a reality check. If I have any aspirations of doing the half-marathon in April...much less an Ironman sometime in the future, running on a treadmill isn't going to cut it.

Oh yeah, that afternoon, I met up with Di and a few other people to go for a bike ride. Thankfully, the weather was poopy enough that we opted out of the 43 mile route and only pulled together 22 miles. Man...my legs were shot. Climbing hills...any hill...was miserably tough.

All in all...it was a good time and I enjoyed the run. I just have to keep truckin.

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