5K #4

I didn't know how it was going to happen. It had been raining w/lightning & thunder off and on all night. Normally I love to listen to storms as I'm falling asleep. I find it relaxing. That night, however, it only exacerbated my churning thoughts & nervous, anticipatory feelings. I figured I might as well get up & go since I wasn't really sleeping. My friend Carl--I mean Caryl :)--picked me up. She had asked me a few weeks earlier if I was going to do the race, and I told her I'd actually forgotten about it, but yeah, I would do it. Then a couple of weeks later I find out that she's changed her mind. I gave her a tiny bit of a hard time...she changed her mind...I said don't do it unless you really want to...now I'm kinda afraid she blames me for her feelin' sick this past week...but I'll get to that later. Anyway, we got there and sure enough, despite the occasional rumble of thunder, the area was swarming with people. Us crazy, addicted racers...! We had to rush to get pinned and over to the starting line. Though the clouds loomed ominously near the mountains, it was only lightly plopping drops on us here & there before we started. They had the 10K-ers start a block behind us and before us, so we had to go to one side of the road or the other while they took off. Talk about crazy, addicted racers!! Seriously, I'm just jealous. :) We then resumed our positions in the middle of the road and waited 5 minutes--ya know, so we wouldn't stampede the 10K-ers. Ha. Before I knew it, we were off. It had stopped rain-dropping, so I had barely tied my rain jacket around my waist before the starting sound went off (I don't even remember what kind of a sound it was now). As I started jogging, it started slipping, so I got tricky and tied it in another knot while holding my iPod at the same time. We ran right next to some horses in a few different fields. It was cool to see how all of our running affected them; they wanted to run right with us. :) They'd try to 'take off' but then they would quickly be brought up short by the fence. In a vague sort of way, it reminded me of the Snowy River movies or Spirit--one of my favorite movies. The first mile went well. Can't remember exactly now where Caryl decided she needed to walk, but it was somewhere around there, so off I went on my own. I did fine for the first 1/2 mile-ish, but then it got harder for me after that. I had to keep telling myself I could keep going & to push harder. I was already starting to feel pain--in my lungs & in my legs. Then this kid, right around B & E's ages, started playing this game with me. Ya know, the one where I slowly pass him at my jogging pace and then when I'm about 20-30 feet ahead of him, he comes striding by me and continues ahead until he is about 20-30 feet in front, then slows to a walk again...repeat this about 10 times, and it gets rather annoying. At first, it was a little amusing to me. I wondered if Brandon & Ethan would do the same thing. He's just a kid; maybe it's fun for him. I focused on my music and my pluggin' along. By then, the raindrops were more pelting than lightly dropping. I pondered the splatters on my glasses. I hoped I was only steps away from the 3 mile mark. Then, FINALLY to placate my inner grumbling, he kept going after the 20-30 feet mark. Or maybe he just never passed me again after I passed him...until just as we were nearing the finish line. (I HATE that.) Or maybe it was his brother...? As should be evident, I'm pretty focused as I run. That's why I probably sound like a CD skipping, leaving out chunks of the book-on-CD. Plus, it's been 6 days. I meant to blog about this sooner, but I've had a really rough week. And not just because of the intense pain I've had in my shin/calf regions, especially on my right leg. (Anyone got any tips?? It's gotten better, but MAN, I don't think I've hurt so badly in that spot after a 5K. I was wearing 2-day old shoes, but the guy at the store made it sound like it shouldn't make a difference if I spent a bit of time breaking them in beforehand. Has felt like someone was pulling my muscles off my bone with every step I'd take, and even intensified when going downstairs or walking downhill.) BUT ANYWAYS......I got my end-of-the-race burst again and strode across the finish line, gasping for air, matted with sweat & rain, pleased that I had done it yet admittedly a teensy bit disappointed that I didn't have a better time. What do ya expect, April, when you don't formally train for these things??!? Plus, I realized later that day, I did 28 seconds better than the race through the lavender fields and 19 seconds better than the 5K on July 4th. I decided to let up on myself and be happy with my time. :) I'd like to get out there & "pound the pavement" more often in an effort to 'train' before the next one (don't exactly know when that will be), however I don't know how feasible that is. At any rate, thank heavens for the challenge & thrill that running gives me...! Despite the feeling that I'm gonna fall apart afterwards. :) Speaking of which, poor Caryl could hardly walk after she finished. She has problems with her hip. Then I emailed her a few days ago and found out she's basically been in bed with flu-like symptoms since Tuesday. I don't think she'll want to do another 5K with me any time soon. Hope you're feeling back to normal (whatever that is for ya--ha) today, Carl--I mean Caryl!! :) (Double ha.)