Saturday, August 21, 2010

Ridin' Solo

So I had this giftcard to this place with all this stuff for this thing called running. This place is called Gary Gribble's Running Sports. This place is second to none in my area for all things running. It's a scary place for me, I can drop three stacks in a minute on things that I "need," for my nest run. I will convince myself it's imperative to my success and splurge-so I have to have a really good reason to go in there. Like a gift card!

With no real needs, I mosied on up to the store and crossed the threshold into Running Nirvana. Upon my entry, a clerk asked me: "Picking up your packet?" Packet? Why no...but...why YES, I am picking up my packet. Packet for what...I dunno, Yes, I will be getting that! I walked to the Race Day packet table and said "Uhm, let's sign me up" and the two ladies clapped and said "Oh good!!" Their applause made me a little smug, like Yeah, you know you want me in your race. They got all my information, handed me a bag full of race materials and I walked away. Then it hit me-what did I just sign up for? I turned around and questioned "Don't laugh but...how far is this race?" A brief moment of fear struck my gut, what if I just signed up for one of those crazy 50k trail runs in Wyandot Park.

"It's a 5k in corporate woods!"
"Oh thank God! Thanks! See you tomorrow I guess!!"

Being impulsive gets me in trouble sometimes, but I had a five mile scheduled anyway. Corporate woods is exactly a mile away from me so I figured I'd run to the race (1 mile), run the race (3.1 miles) and run home (1 mile) which equals *drum roll* 5 MILES! Shocking! I figured it'd just be a way to get some miles in, not take the race super seriously and get another 5k under my belt. The morning came around, I jogged up to the start and BAM! Gun Time!




It was a quick 5k through Corporate Woods, ala The Gobbler Grind. The course was really familiar to me since I do train there every day. That being the case I kinda felt like maybe I should try and set a PR. I cranked up the ipod, and pushed. I burnt out a little by mile 2 and slowed from a 7:55/mi to 9:48/mi. I was NOT enjoying the run pushing that hard, so I settled into a more natural pace and finished strong.



I stuck around and watched most of the finishers cross the line. As I was stretching out my hammies, a girl about my age walked up and said "Hey! Good race! I tried to keep up with you the whole time!!" I was so flattered, like what? Me? Really?! I told her she should have smacked me out of my zone, and told me-that I would have loved to pace with her. Maybe next race? Sweet! You're not invisible at races, who knew?


The results were posted, I was satisfied: 64th overall and 7th in my division. I snagged a bagel and ran home with it in my mouth:




Why is my shirt DUDES only?! Lame!


By the time I had showered, changed and eaten there was an email in my inbox:


Congratulations on finishing the A Chance For Children 2010
on August 21, 2010. For your records, the weather that day was
clear sunny 90 deg day.
There were 19 finishers in the Female 20 to 24 age group and
245 finishers in the race.
Your overall finish place was 64 and your age group
finish place was 4
. Your overall finish percentile was 26 while your age
group percentile was 21. Your time of 28:38.6 gave you a 9:14 pace per mile.


I'll take FOURTH! Wooo!

4 comments:

Her Posh Palate... said...

Your races always blow my mind!!! Congrats!!! Your legs are looking insane Julia!!

ash & diz said...

Way to go! That's incredible!

Mrs. W said...

Wahoo! I'm so proud of you!!

Unknown said...

You are amazing and so SO inspirational!