Sunday, July 28, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Blessing of the Fleet 2013
3rd shift this weekend so Wednesday's sleep before this race would be monumental. What did I do?
Night Before:
In a spur of the moment, overnight shift inducing act, I signed up a week before the Blessing of the Fleet 2013 thanks to the gentle nudge of peer pressure at work. Where am I? Pasta the night before right after second shift, disoriented from my sleeping pattern. Thankfully a coworker had picked up my race bib and dropped it off at work to save myself a drive all the way to southern Rhode Island.
Left the parking lot at work at 3:30pm in scrubs with my running shorts on underneath, arrive at Gansett High in a downpour around 4:30pm with my Ninja Turtles duffle bag full of my running gear. Parking spot right in front of the school which would prove to a be a blessing and a curse as we'll find out later.
Donning the Tang Clan shirt (hasn't failed me for PR worthy attempts) and Nike Frees, which seems to be the go to trendy pick.
Mother nature and fortune went hand in hand as the weather cleared up and sat at a decent mid 70s instead of a dreadful 90 like the week before.
The usual pedestrian crawl started the first half mile and continued for the first couple miles but I somehow got down to 8 minute pace. It was noted that I could not lose to the kid in Beats headphones because we get it, you spent 300 dollars on headphones. Mission accomplished at mile 2. My pacer for the first portion turned out to be an older lady who kept whooping it up at random.
My plan was to get half way in to the race and like my last long races, turn it on for the last 5-6 miles. Conservative was the mind set.
Miles 4-6 were along the main road that was straight and long, rocking my pace gently to sleep. It was at the beginning of this straight away where I clutched a free bag of ice to cool my neck and lower back.
You know what you got and what you don't got--I wanted to go after mile 4-6, couldn't until a little after 8. Wiser for knowing that, or wussed out and didn't go all in?
Around mile 7.5, saw my surrogate parents, the Hartnetts cheer me on.
Shots of whiskey and beer before mile 8. Not for me, just offered.
Somewhere in here, a group of 3 of us all involuntarily shook our arms loose. That's one way of seeing if someone knows you're right behind them.
Mile 8.3ish til the end, I stopped looking at my watch, making sure I held on to 8 minute pace and just went for it, smiling all the way. Around 9, passed the last co-worker and booked it to around the tune of 7:15 pace. Per usual, went too soon in the chute and got passed by the one dude I tried to "race" in the chute. Shook his hand and congratulated him afterward.
1:17:51. PR. On the right side of that arbitrary 80 minute cut off.
Wasn't the worst race, wasn't the best.
Meeting up after the race wasn't bad. What was bad/ a running joke at this race is trying to find our cars post race since we elected to not ride the stink busses and opted to walk to not 1, not 2, but 3 school parking lots in search of our cars. The walk took longer than the race.
Post race notes:
as noted by our female runner coworker, there were flagrant butt cheeks everywhere.
This race seems to bring the rebel side in me as this has been the site were I debuted my new haircut to the Hartnetts.
the race shirt/gray monstrosity rivals the first pawtucket half
hot dogs.
double rainbow.
no gag for the first time in a race but nauseous now probably from hunger.
an excellent question was posed, what would happen if you ran during the 10 mile walk an hour earlier?
2 nights before: 4am-2pm sleep...fml.
Night Before:
In a spur of the moment, overnight shift inducing act, I signed up a week before the Blessing of the Fleet 2013 thanks to the gentle nudge of peer pressure at work. Where am I? Pasta the night before right after second shift, disoriented from my sleeping pattern. Thankfully a coworker had picked up my race bib and dropped it off at work to save myself a drive all the way to southern Rhode Island.
Left the parking lot at work at 3:30pm in scrubs with my running shorts on underneath, arrive at Gansett High in a downpour around 4:30pm with my Ninja Turtles duffle bag full of my running gear. Parking spot right in front of the school which would prove to a be a blessing and a curse as we'll find out later.
Donning the Tang Clan shirt (hasn't failed me for PR worthy attempts) and Nike Frees, which seems to be the go to trendy pick.
Mother nature and fortune went hand in hand as the weather cleared up and sat at a decent mid 70s instead of a dreadful 90 like the week before.
The usual pedestrian crawl started the first half mile and continued for the first couple miles but I somehow got down to 8 minute pace. It was noted that I could not lose to the kid in Beats headphones because we get it, you spent 300 dollars on headphones. Mission accomplished at mile 2. My pacer for the first portion turned out to be an older lady who kept whooping it up at random.
My plan was to get half way in to the race and like my last long races, turn it on for the last 5-6 miles. Conservative was the mind set.
Miles 4-6 were along the main road that was straight and long, rocking my pace gently to sleep. It was at the beginning of this straight away where I clutched a free bag of ice to cool my neck and lower back.
You know what you got and what you don't got--I wanted to go after mile 4-6, couldn't until a little after 8. Wiser for knowing that, or wussed out and didn't go all in?
Around mile 7.5, saw my surrogate parents, the Hartnetts cheer me on.
Shots of whiskey and beer before mile 8. Not for me, just offered.
Somewhere in here, a group of 3 of us all involuntarily shook our arms loose. That's one way of seeing if someone knows you're right behind them.
Mile 8.3ish til the end, I stopped looking at my watch, making sure I held on to 8 minute pace and just went for it, smiling all the way. Around 9, passed the last co-worker and booked it to around the tune of 7:15 pace. Per usual, went too soon in the chute and got passed by the one dude I tried to "race" in the chute. Shook his hand and congratulated him afterward.
1:17:51. PR. On the right side of that arbitrary 80 minute cut off.
Wasn't the worst race, wasn't the best.
Meeting up after the race wasn't bad. What was bad/ a running joke at this race is trying to find our cars post race since we elected to not ride the stink busses and opted to walk to not 1, not 2, but 3 school parking lots in search of our cars. The walk took longer than the race.
Post race notes:
as noted by our female runner coworker, there were flagrant butt cheeks everywhere.
This race seems to bring the rebel side in me as this has been the site were I debuted my new haircut to the Hartnetts.
the race shirt/gray monstrosity rivals the first pawtucket half
hot dogs.
double rainbow.
no gag for the first time in a race but nauseous now probably from hunger.
an excellent question was posed, what would happen if you ran during the 10 mile walk an hour earlier?
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