While it was cold, we all (mostly me, but it was good for the rest of the family, too) got lucky in that it wasn't raining. It's been raining here all week nearly without stop and is, again, now raining. In fact, not only was it not raining, but the sun was even out when we set out.
We got to Sherwood High School, the start and end of the race, just before 8:00 in plenty of time to pick up my race number and then go sit in the car again so as not to freeze while we waited for the 9:00 start time.
Poor Ranger looks like one of those abused dog pictures here, but she's probably just bummed that she only got a 10 minute walk this morning, followed by a car ride that didn't end in a hike. Life was seriously unfair at this point.
Dogs were not allowed in the stadium, so she had to sit in the car while Anthony and Davan came to watch the start.
I did a short warm up jog and then was holding onto Davan to do a little stretching before divesting myself of extra clothing. People were saying things like, "I've never been this cold before" (which seems like that person must have led a very sheltered life, but does show that it was cold) and "If we don't freeze to death, then we'll..."
I was feeling okay until I took off my outer layers to leave with my support crew. At that point, I needed to cuddle up to Davan for warmth.
Davan, who inherited my turkey hat.
That was totally fine with me. I couldn't see running in it and she actually brought it home for some reason. She obviously wants it more than me.
Then 9:00 came and it was time to be off. Now, walkers were supposed to line up in the back of the pack. That didn't happen. It was a bit chaotic and, according to Anthony and Davan, I was near the front, even though I felt like I had to weave my way through hoards of walkers once I crossed the starting line.
At this point, though we were still just walking to the start. I'm in the pack with the blue and grey top on.
This is when the dodging of walkers started.
Anthony and Davan tell me that the start went on for a good 10+ minutes, which explains why I had people passing me who I'd never seen before right up to about half way (3 miles). I guess they were working their way from the way back of the pack.
Even after breaking free of the majority of the walkers, things stayed pretty crowded for about the first mile where the 5Kers separated of from us hard core 10Kers. Then we settled in.
I spent the first mile or two worrying about pace a bit. Mostly I was enjoying it, but it did feel like I had a long way to go at that point.
By the time I passed mile 3, I was feeling pretty good. I even passed a few people in the second half. Others I settled in to play leap frog with. One lady in particular was all about walking until I passed her then running to pass me. We played that game for the last 2 miles, which was particularly interesting after mile 5 or so when we merged back with the 5Kers.
At the point, the 5Kers who were still out there were the walkers, many of whom were walking in large family groups. For the last miles or so, we were on a paved trail that wasn't overly wide. They did, most of the time, leave enough room for one person to pass, but that occasionally broke down, too, particularly with the kids.
Leap Frog Lady got pretty impatient a couple times, wanting to pass me, but there being no space to do so.
I was feeling pretty darn good on that last mile and was kind of surprised when my Garmin beeped at me that we'd gotten to mile six. I picked up the pace a little for my last just over a tenth mile and even had enough left to sprint to the finish.
And when I did finish? My time? Remember my projected 1:15? Blew that away. I did it in 1:05!!! I was pretty pleased. I'd had hope I'd beat the 1:15 by a few minutes, but 10 minutes was beyond my hopes.
I don't have any idea where in the pack I finished because we didn't hang around for results. We did start walking a little for a cool down:
But then it started raining. What timing. We got in the car and came on home to cook our Thanksgiving dinner, which is deserving of a whole separate post.
While I was running, Anthony, Davan and Ranger walked in a near-by park, which was, apparently, quite nice and Ranger was pretty excited about the outing. So, it was a success for all. We're all looking forward to our 2 mile Winter Wonderland Run on Saturday evening. All, that is, except for Ranger, who really will have to sit that one out. At home, even. If we had a nanny cam, we'd probably find a picture similar to this one about that situation:
Poor abused puppy.
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