10k
Hot Dash
18 degrees
Not a fast run, but I felt relaxed and strong, and I powered up the big hill. No difficulty at all. I picked it up a little at the end and enjoyed crossing the finish line. A victory! Maybe the hardest thing about the race was holding back — I kept wanting to go faster than Scott, but I kept it slow and relaxed. My goal is not a fast time, but to be able to run the marathon with Scott.
For most of the race I recounted stories — probably the same stories — about past races: having to run ahead to get water for FWA in our 5k, RJP being very disturbed by a runner who was dry heaving as he neared the finish line, a wheezing runner dying on a hill, running way too fast in the first 5k of a 10k then dying and having to stop and walk several times for the second 5k.
10 Things
- 2 women behind us lamenting how they were both such bad singers — I played an instrument, but I just can’t hear the notes. I turn the radio way up to drown out my own voice. I wanted to turn aroudn and say, Me too!
- the crappy pre-recorded version of the national anthem before the race
- cold, cold fingers and toes for the first mile
- Scott yelling, Banana!, when a guy in a banana costume ran by
- Overheard: Oh right — I get a beer when I’m done with this! note: our bibs had a ticket for one free beer at the end
- Overheard: runner with a 1/2 mile before she would reach the turn around: where is the turn around anyway? I wanted to say, a long way, but didn’t
- a few patches of snow and ice near the edges of the road
- snow on the grass
- the cobblestones at the end were in bad shape — lots of holes, rough, uneven
- on the cobbles, I heard someone behind sprinting and yelling but they never passed. What happened? did they think the race finished sooner? did they sprint too soon and run out of gas? I’ll probably never know