12k Race (wherein I want to die)

Well, it happened.

I ran that 12k yesterday.

A pretty good way to sum it up is to say that in the middle of the race I thought to myself, "I hate races. I'm never running another race again." And then at the end of the race I thought, "hey, that was okay".

The 12ks of Christmas race was held in Kirkland, Washington. I was encouraged to come run the race by Stevie, Adam's sister. She started running last winter, and has run a few races. I imagined that signing up for a 12k would help motivate me to get back into the running shape I was in before.

When signing up for the race, I mentioned to Stevie, "I should check out the elevation map on this thing", knowing that hills and inclines are not my best friends. Stevie replied, "Kirkland's flat!" Aha! Okay! Spoken just like somebody who knows what they are talking about.

Except she lied to me, and by the time I was already chugging up the second huge hill I was mentally shaking a fist at her. Unfortunately, she was long gone, in front of me.

The first half was brutal. Absolutely brutal. We realized after we arrived at the race that there was a larger hill at the very beginning. We thought this was doable: attack that hill and then the rest had to be downhill or flat. So, so wrong.

Instead, there were big hills for almost the entire first half of the race. And like Stevie commented after the race, you would get down with a hill, level out, and then go up another hill.

I made fairly good time during the first mile and a half (about a 9 minute mile), and that gave me a good head start, but those hills really did a number on me. I even had to stop and walk 2 times, and I've never walked in a race before.

Fortunately, there were downhills, and I made good time at the end of the race. My official time was 1:17:33, which makes for an average of 10:25 miles. I can't help but think that that's not bad for having walked a couple times, and for those stupid hills.

I also can't help but think what my time would have been had the course been flat. Grrr...

Adam snapped this picture of me at the end of the race.

 And this picture of Stevie and I in our post-race eating frenzy. No, I do not know why I'm making that face.

Jogging the World

This week we had a visit from a stranger.

One of our friends here in town has an ambulance and offers EMT services. This is important in our area because emergency services of any kind (Fire, Ambulance) are hard to come by, especially in the outlying communities. He has also been hired to provide EMT watch on many of the big off-road races on the Baja.

Somehow, Tony Mangan got a hold of him, and he escorted Tony for a while this week. Why would Tony need an escort and EMT services?

Because he's running around the world.

I know, I know, if you're a runner, you've probably heard it before. Dean Karnazes runs across the States, so-and-so runs around the world, but Tony is serious.

This isn't a "let's run around the northern hemisphere" run. It's not a "I'm gonna skip whole continents" run. This is seriously running around the entire world. It will mostly likely take 4 years. 

And he will cover 31,000 miles.

I thought I had a hard time finished 3 and a half miles this morning.

We offered Tony a bed for the night, a warm shower, and wireless internet. We got to talk about his trek over lunch. After years of racing, Tony is getting to accomplish his real goal - running around the world. You can follow him on his website.

As for my own running, I haven't said much about trying to get back into it after a lazy Spring. I walk (run!) a fine line between not being too hard on myself or not expecting too much, and telling myself I can absolutely be back at where I was. It's frustrating to find myself "running" paces so much slower than I ever have, yet I know it will only get better with time. We'll see. I have an American treat in my refrigerator for when I finish that "first" 5-miler.

Make 'Em Laugh

No run. Although I told myself and others that the sore hip didn't matter, when my alarm clock went off this morning, I felt it was a good excuse to stay in bed. It feels fine today, thank goodness. 

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Hey - have you guys heard about these new things called Readers and RSS feeds? Oh wait - you already heard? Two years ago? See, I'm really behind when it comes to new technology because... well, I can't think of a good reason other than I'm poor. Yes, I realize that's no excuse for not using a Reader.

Okay, well I just set mine up and it's... it's... amazing. Chances are, if you are reading this and you have a blog, then you're on my Google Reader. Your chances are great because I saw that I don't have very many subscribers (yes, I looked myself up), and I don't follow that many blogs (I can't keep people straight). Now my new obsession is checking my Reader ten times a day. Believe it.

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My best friend, Stephanie, and I have a motto, and it's "Bringing joy wherever we go". This usually just means that we like to make random strangers laugh while we're out in public. Last year this usually happened on our monthly trips to Target with our bantering back and forth in front of the poor cashier (and yes, they usually laughed). 

The night before our half-marathon we took a trip to Target together and Stephanie pondered over a water bottle to buy. I stood around, minding my own business, stating that I would probably pick up a disposable water bottle for the race the next day. Then Stephanie suggested something that made me want to hug her. "Do you want to get a bottle? I'll buy it for you. We could get matching water bottles." 

Best friends. Matching water bottles. What more could you ask for? So we stood there, in that aisle, contemplating our best choices. 

"Purple? No way. What is that on that bottle - it looks evil. Who even uses a bottle like that?  Hey - if we're getting matching water bottles, they have to be cute. Aww we're going to have matching water bottles. I get a matching water bottle with my bestie!"

That's when we realized there was another girl in the aisle, and as I looked over at her, I could see her trying to conceal a smile. And that's when I said "We gotta stop, 'cause this girl thinks we're crazy". The girl replied "Ha. No, I'm not listening". Yeah, right.  

We picked out our water bottles. I may be more than 1,000 miles away from my Stephanie, but at least we've got matching water bottles, you know? We're totally mature women in our late twenties. 

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Speaking of the half-marathon, my parents arrived home yesterday and brought with them some of the stuff I didn't want to lug on the plane two weeks ago. Included in that were my items from my half-marathon - my shirt and my medal. 

I don't know who in their right mind chooses a shirt this color, but I tried it on and I decided that a Mexican morning can deal with it. I'm seeing a winning combo of lime green shirt and pink running shorts in my future. It's really loose, it has long sleeves, I'm wearing it. But don't tell anyone.

And the medal. The race was put on by the Willamette Valley Road Runners. I'm just happy it's shaped like Oregon.

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Also in among my things? A whole lot of books to get started on. A couple of them are old favorites that I dug out of storage to read again. Most are new to me.

What a day

I actually can't think of a way to write this blog entry without being
a) cheesy
b) nerdy
c) stupid

So, you'll have to roll with me here and hang in there. Yes, today was the half-marathon, and no, it wasn't ideal. There you go, I just gave away the end result there in the first paragraph!

The forecast called for 100% chance of rain, and low 50s. I decided to wear my shorts, just in case you cared. I wore too many layered shirts on top, but kept them on the whole race.

When we showed up to the race, at 7:45, it was raining hard, and we had begun to talk about how dreadful the weather was. (Stephanie and I had planned to go shopping after the race, and her best line was "Well, we might as well run 13 miles, the outlet stores aren't open yet.") Once we arrived, though,  I stepped out of the car and realized how windy it was. Just perfect. But, of course, you have to run the race anyway, so we got our bibs, hung out in the car for a while, and then huddled with all the other runners inside the school until the last possible minute before the 9:00am start.

The story is basically this: It was really bad weather, and I didn't run like I wanted to. I don't know if it was nerves, or if I was upset about the weather, or if it was indeed the weather that made it so bad. The rain was on and off (mostly on), with bad wind that made the rain hit the side of my face. That's no fun. The shorts got soaked and stuck to my legs. I had side stitches the majority of the time (and I never get side stitches). My shoes and socks were soaked by mile 2. About halfway through I knew that my goal time was completely shot. At mile 8 I started counting down how much time I had left.  I had remembered that a running friend told me to really push hard and go for it after the halfway point, but already by then I was so tired. In fact, I kept saying to myself "I'm never doing this again", in between trying to repeat "I love running, I love running, I love running".

The best thing happened at mile 12. I thought I heard someone yell "Meghan!" but I, of course, assumed it was for someone else, and perhaps I misheard because I had my headphones in. Although some people had talked about coming to see us, nobody had confirmed any plans to do so (which was absolutely fine by both Stephanie and me). But next thing I knew, I looked over and my friend Erin was running down the road after me. I hit her in the arm because she surprised me so much. She said hi, that she and her husband, Marcus, were back in the car and had taken pictures, exclaimed about the horrible weather, and told me I was doing great. I don't think I could thank them enough for driving down to see us and for doing that. It was a wonderful surprise and we got to have lunch with them after the race.

I finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes, a full 10 minutes slower than I had been aiming and training for. What a disappointment. I feel fortunate enough that I never walked, I didn't get hurt, I achieved a goal, yadda yadda yadda. But I can't help but feel really disappointed.

After Stephanie and I both finished we got to take showers in the locker room (which was a really nice feature for the race to have), and we headed off to do what best girl friends do best: have lunch and go shopping. We were both very tired and sore, but walking around the outlet mall was actually good for our legs.

Marcus and Erin have both run marathons and I explained to them my confusion over having such a horrible time. I've heard over and over that at races your adrenaline can kick in and you can be pleasantly surprised at how fast and well you run. I don't know what planet those people are from, but that certainly didn't happen to me. I was frustrated because I have run both 11 and 13 mile long runs at a pace merely 15 seconds slower than what I ran today and felt absolutely fine, but at the end of the race today, running a relatively slow pace, I wanted to curl up and die. What gives? I won't analyze it all here on the blog, as it will bore you all to tears.

Information about the race:
~We ran the Cascade Half Marathon, in Turner, Oregon (just south of Salem).
~The start and finish is at Cascade Jr. and Sr. High School.
~They have three distances: Half Marathon, 10k, and 2 mile.
~All three races combined are held to 1,000 runner limit.
~It was a cheap race, $45 for the half marathon.
~We got a technical tee that is a bright neon green that I will never wear. Not any goodies.
~The medal is nice and in the shape of the state of Oregon - I can definitely deal with that :)

Good things:
*A small race means it's not crazy packed with people, and seems a little friendlier
*Having it held at the school was fun, with lots of parking and a lot of space inside to hang out before and after the race
*Cheap
*Flat Course
*Lots of water and Gatorade stations and they had plenty of both
*Fairly scenic
*Use of locker rooms to store items (with your own lock) and/or take showers. Considering the weather and how soaked all of my clothes were, this was really convenient.

Bad things:
`When we crossed the finish line, there was no water, no Gatorade, nothing to eat, etc. There was soup, bread, cookies, water, and coffee in another building and you had to follow the signs. I actually think it is a little ridiculous that they couldn't at least hand out a bottle of water at the end, or even have one more water/Gatorade station at the finish.

My legs hurt. Stephanie and I are going to do some classic mall walking tomorrow. I, myself, can't stand the idea of going for a walk in the rain. But for now, I need to go to bed. Stat.