Great Race 2010

I ran the Great Race today. It's a 10k.  It's my second 10 of my life.  The first 10k was last year's Great Race. I don't have a blog post about it last year, but here's the twitter from it. I just dug up old emails to get more details. I left my house at 7:38.  I wanted to leave earlier but I couldn't find my bus pass. The race started at 9:41 last year. I got to the start only shortly before that because I was in line for the shuttle so long. I took pictures last year. I just uploaded them.

I didn't want to get in the same situation as last year so I planned to leave my house at 6:30.  I left at 6:20 instead of the 7:30 that I left last year (mentioned above).  That extra hour helped. I ended up at the race 2.5 hours earlier than last year. I left the parking garage at 7 to walk to the shuttle. I didn't have to wait in line. I might have even had more than 2.5 hours to kill.   Oh I left the parking garage and while looking at a map I walked the wrong way. Then I realized I forgot my shuttle pass, so I had to go back. I got money when I went back too. Too bad I didn't remember my inhaler.
On the shuttle I talked to some lady. She was nice. I don't know her name or her number.

I went to the bathroom in a portapotty today. It was not fun to wait in line.
In line some guy gave me a garbage bag (a new one) to wear as a poncho to keep warm.  I ended up using it later.

Then I wasted time. I found a curb to sit on. I sat there for a long time. A coworker found me and we talked. So that made killing time better. My butt hurt and then got numb from sitting on the cement. When I stood up 20 minutes before the race started, I could barely move my butt.
It got packed within seconds and there wasn't a spot to warm-up. I jogged in place. I stretched.  It got warmer so a few minutes before the race I was able to take my long sleeve shirt off and tie it around my waist.

It took over 4 minutes to cross the start line.
There were entirely too many people. I had to weave the entire run. I thought it would spread out eventually. It didn't. It was the worst. I had to hold back so many times because there was nowhere to go.
I got a side cramp about 1:30 in.
After mile 4, I walked. It was the first race I walked in ever.

Oh 15 minutes in and 30 minutes in, I sent text messages.
My breathing was incredibly bad because I forgot to take my inhaler.  A coworker caught up to me at one point. We talked a little. She noted my awful breathing.

I had a goal time.
I updated that goal time based on things sucking
I hit the 5k point and updated the goal time based on that.
I missed all my goal times.

I had to battle to get a stupid banana after the race. I also had to battle to get water. It's the worst thing ever. Too many people.

People from the gym at work met and we took a group picture. It wasn't on my camera this year but I will post it when I get it.

Me about a half hour after running

I use the stopwatch on my phone. 5:53 in was when I passed Little. 

All my mile splits were awful. 

Last year I took water at every water stop and I did better. Last year I crossed the starting line earlier after the gun so I think I ended up around faster people. 

Here's the official race thing from the Great Race Website. It has my 5k split 2 minutes too fast.  I wonder if they will update that. I'll have to check tomorrow. 

After the group shot, I had to find my way back to the parking garage. Walk back to the garage, I had difficulty walking. It just felt like my shoes were digging into my ankles. They were. When I got home I had bruises and dents.

I found it. That's a different entrance but it worked.  Getting out of the garage took 2 minutes to get my card and money, 1 minute to pay, and 3 minutes to get out of the garage. It was not like last year. Also, it was about a minute before getting onto 279 (or ramp for 579 then 279 or whatever it is). That garage was THE BEST.  If I were to do the great race again, I'd park there, but I'm not doing it again unless they limit the number of participants to 2,000 less than they had this year. 

Side by side with last year so you can see how poorly I ran.

Overall this year the weather was better. Last year it rained. But last year there were a lot more bands and people playing musical instruments on the course. 

Well too bad I had to end my last race as a 26 year old on such a bad note.