Scrap and Run: Spring Thaw - 20 miles (2.25.12)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Spring Thaw - 20 miles (2.25.12)

I ran the first 10 miles with Adrienne. We were both registered for 20 miles.

The weather was so cold today. It was so windy. The worst was when the wind was coming at you while you were running up hill. I wonder how fast I would have been if it was good weather.

Adrienne's ankle was bothering her. My hips and ankle have been bothering me. Well in addition to my plantar fasciitis and how I feel like I'm getting a cold. Adrienne and I talked about how we don't want to be stupid and we'd rather go slow/run shorter than injure ourselves so we can't run for future races. Based on all that discussion, she decided to stop at 10 miles. I thought my lungs felt good so I would go for 15. I told everyone on twitter I was doing 20 so when 15 rolled around and I didn't feel like I was going to die, I decided to keep going.

I'm pretty sure other runners of 20 miles don't run as sporadic as me. I also think they probably have some sort of training plan they follow.

Adrienne and I wanted to go for 10 minute mile pace. We were going faster but still were pretty consistent. Adrienne's Garmin wouldn't start before the race so she didn't have a watch to look at and had to rely on me telling her our numbers. My watch beeps each .25 and hers usually beeps each mile so she had to adjust her way of thinking.

My left hip started hurting around mile 7. But it wasn't bad.

I thought after I ran 10, I would run intervals. I thought there was no way I'd keep it up. When I got water at mile 10, I was walking toward the guy with the garbage bag and wasn't paying attention and I stepped in puddle/pothole; It was cold. I walked one interval but then thought I didn't really need it. Around mile 12 someone caught up to me and we talked. Her name was Christy. She's 32 and is in med school. She already has a Phd. One of her degrees is in mechanical engineering. I forget. I think one of the 3 schools she already went to was Harvard too. She was really going fast. It was a little bit of a struggle to keep up. We did a lot of talking too. She was only running 15 miles and around 14.5, after much encouragement, she pulled ahead to finish. She didn't want to leave me but I kept reiterating that she could go ahead and also she was done at 15 and I had 5 more so wouldn't be giving an extra kick. I still hadn't fully decided if I'd do 15 or 20 while I was running with her but after I told her to kick it since I was running extra, I figured I had to run extra. Going toward the finish line I was still debating going to the finish shoot versus the lap shoot.

I folded and then pinned my number to my leg.

I thought for sure I'd do the last 5 miles with intervals since I was going to do the previous 5. I walked at 15.5 for .08. Then ran to 16.25 where I got water. Right after this I stopped to tie my shoe tighter. It was tied but felt loose. It felt loose since I started running so I was surprised I lasted so long without stopping to tie it. By this point my hands were cold even with gloves. It is really hard to tie a shoe while wearing gloves. It took a little longer to tie it than I anticipated. Autopause was on and it paused during this time. I'm not sure how long I was stopped though. That is going to mess up my garmin time versus chip time. On this last loop there were so few people. There was some lady behind me. She was maybe 20 ft behind me at the 15 mile mark and will all my walking and stopping, I couldn't believe she didn't pass me up. Finally around 16.5 or so she got to me. We ran together the rest of the way. I stopped twice to walk with her. We walked because she wanted to, but I enjoyed it too. We ran together and she was running pretty fast. It was hard to keep up. After 17.5 miles, I sure run slower. I learned her name is Bobbi. She has 4 kids, ages 5-15. She started running 4 years ago. This was the longest she ever ran. Going up the hill around 19.25, I passed her up but only by a little. I turned and shouted to her to keep it up and we were almost there (and I'd give her stats of really what exactly we'd have left). I knew she was speedy before and would get me on the downhill. She did catch back up to me. With a few hundred yards to go she passed me up. I couldn't have any of that so I kicked it and ended up passing her. Her friend was there and took pictures of her finishing but since we were so close, I'm in them. She said she'd email them to me. I hope she does.
After we finished I asked her friend to take a picture of us with my iphone. She did. I already emailed that to her so then she has my email and can just reply. They were taking race photos at the finish but not each lap I did. I wonder when they will be posted.

I was worried a lot of the time that I'd miss the cutoff. The course cutoff was 3:30 and I knew I'd be close to that. I finished about 3:20 but a little later since I had the chip time and it took 40+ seconds to start.

Me with Bobbi after the race

I sent 1 text during the race to Jen to tell her I was done with 10.

Once my hip started hurting, they hurt the entire rest of the time. My toes on my right foot started to hurt with 5 miles left. I did end up with a few blisters on the tips of my toes. My feet semi hurt all the time lately. When I wake up in the morning, they hurt the worst though. My ankle didn't hurt at all though!

So after I was done, I got water and headed to the rose barn for awards. Well I got there and immediately went upstairs for awards and they were done with all the raffle prizes and everything. They were throwing the last few things to people standing there since most people had won something. I was kind of upset by this. They don't reward people who stuck it out and ran the full 20. We even get excluded. I don't know what all they gave away but running things that Elite Runners and Walkers sells. I would have liked something and totally missed it all. I talked to Bobbi again here. We went downstairs and I got some chicken noodle soup. She got pizza. She threw away 90% of the pizza though saying it wasn't good. I think all the pizza arrived for when the 10 mile runners were finishing. The soup was at least in crock pots. I was going to get a free massage but got sick of waiting around so left without one.

I bet I forgot to mention a lot of things. If you have any questions about the race let me know.

Official results are posted. My official time was 3:21:06.