Category: running

Symphony Run 5K

Last night at the 5K Symphony Run race:

Cool picture, eh? I actually look like I’m running! I mean, I was running. Fast. For me. Finished the race in 34:59. Not a PR for me, but I’m pretty damn proud of that, seeing as the only running I’ve really done since May was last weekend at the bridge race.

And I ran (har har not literally) into Emily, one of the women I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon with. Although she didn’t get to do it. But that’s another story.

So I’m starting Core today. Went to the store after the race and bought a bunch of fruits and vegs and some soups. So I’ll try it for a week and a half (until next Wednesday’s weigh in, the one next week) and see how it goes.

Marine Corps Marathon Race Report

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Overall time: 5:49:33, PR of 8:03

So here’s how the whole weekend went…

I had planned to work until noon on Thursday, as our flight didn’t leave until nearly four. I switched shifts with Janice, one of my colleagues, and was to go in at 7:30 a.m. instead of my customary 9:30 or 10:30 start. But by the time everyone got into the office by 10:30, I was too excited to sit in my chair and do any work whatsoever. So my boss Irene said I could leave early. We had a group hug (a silly group hug, not a cheesy group hug) and I left at around 11. I had packed the night before, but I repacked that morning, just to make sure I wasn’t bringing too much stuff, and to make sure I brought the right stuff. Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems forgetting anything vital. And I still had plenty of room to pack my IKEA purchases.

Lindsay drove George and me to the airport, my mom and Alice met us there. Checked in, blah blah blah, nothing exciting to say about our journey to DC. Kristina and Anne picked up George and me and Jenny (my sister) picked up Mom and Alice. George and I stayed at Kristina’s that night (I’d say “slept there” but Kristina’s cat is pretty erm, energetic, so sleep wasn’t really an option.) The next morning, we went with Kristina to her office, then George and I met Jenny, Mom, and Alice at Jenny’s office to go on a Capital tour. Nothing terribly exciting about that, either. Pretty building. Blah blah.

George and I went to the Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian) after lunch but didn’t stay too too long as we were both exhausted from lack of sleep. Made it to the Hyatt, where I was staying, and checked in, rested, went to the expo. Got my number. Yay!

Met everyone for dinner at an Asian restaurant in Cleveland Park, wherever that is. Somewhere near where Kristina lives, which is near Georgetown. Whatever. Kristina brought me to my hotel while everyone else went to an Irish pub across the street. Slept reasonably well that night.

Saturday morning, Peggy and I got up early for a meeting with our TNT people and a short group run. Naturally, Peggy and I were the slowest of the bunch, but the run went well. My ankle barely hurt, and the run really helped my confidence. The weather was nice and cool, which I hoped would hold for the marathon. After that, we went back to the expo, I got a few running shirts (courtesy of my mom) and then we had a TNT pasta lunch. The Penguin guy was the speaker. He was funny. The food was fine, ate some pasta, ate some bread, drank lots of water.

After lunch, Kristina came and picked me up for a trip to Woodbridge to see a friend, and then to IKEA. Yeah! Bought lots of cool stuff, for like 20 bucks, total. It’s now in my suitcase, hopefully making its merry way to my house. Afterwards, Kristina and I went to my sister and her boyfriend Rob’s house in Fairfax for dinner. Everyone else was quite buzzed on wine, which is always entertaining as the sole sober person (except for Kristina, because she had to drive me back to the hotel.) It was a pretty calm evening, and afterwards Kristina drove me back to the hotel. The clocks went back an hour that night, which was great because we were able to get plenty of sleep. Well, it wasn’t perfect sleep, there was a bit of tossing and turning, no surprise there.

Got up at 5:15, got dressed and went downstairs to catch the TNT shuttle. The temperature was already around 60 degrees. Faaaaaaaantastic. I think it was probably cooler in New Orleans. Sheesh. I was profoundly irritated at my luck. Never again will I make the mistake of thinking that Washington DC will be cold in late October. Grrr. Yeah. Just because it was 48 degrees on Friday…why in the world wouldn’t it be 60 degrees with 90% humidity?

Made it to the start around 6:45. Dropped off baggage. Found Ren! Went to the bathroom. I tried to time it so I wouldn’t have to pee when the race started, but of course I did. Thank goodness the people in our 5:30-5:59 corral didn’t move for 20 minutes, so I was able to pee one last time before we started. Peggy and I positioned ourselves with the 5:30 Galloway pace group. I thought we could stay with them, they were doing a 3:1 run/walk, and we’d done 6:1 in training, but as it turns out we lost them almost immediately. Not sure how we got ahead of them, but I don’t trust those Galloway people anymore! (But I’ll still run and walk, don’t get me wrong.)

Now I’m going to try to remember every mile…Keep in mind, to run at 5:30, our pace should have been 12:36 per mile.

Mile 1 (12:10) Ooops, too fast. Where is the Galloway pacer?

Mile 2 (13:13) Maybe if we slow down a little we’ll find him. Here we meet Jane and Kay, two older and very cool ladies who were also trying to stick with the 5:30 pace group. We managed to stick together for quite a while. Jane is a breast cancer survivor – she had it last year! We lost her about ten miles into the race, but I was pleased to find that she did finish, right around when Peggy finished. Kay finished a bit later, I’m also pleased to see from the results. I was a little worried about her because we caught up to her during the Rock Creek Park stretch, but then lost her again.

Mile 3 (12:32) Well, on a better pace, at least. Whose idea was it to run around the Pentagon? Ah well, at least I got to see it.

Mile 4 (13:08) First water stop, plus it’s uphill to get to it. Cruel!

Mile 5 (11:44) Oooh, here’s the downhill, plus a little extra running to try to catch that dang pacer.

Mile 6 (12:29) Better pace. Probably a downhill here too.

Mile 7 (13:19) Saw Mom, Jenny, and George here. And they took a picture. Look how fresh I am!
mile7
Lots of spectators here because it passes right by the start/finish area.

Mile 8 (13:19) Used the restroom here. Right before we saw Kristina and Anne and Rachel for the first time. That was awesome. (Both finding a free portalet *and* seeing friends.) The girls were holding up a sign provided by Tylenol that they had written “Go Pam and Peggy” on, and were photographed by the Tylenol people holding it. Maybe we’ll all be famous!

Mile 9 (12:08) Up into Rock Creek Park. It was gorgeous here, lots of red and yellow leaves fluttering through the air. I spent part of the time trying to catch a leaf. Got one, and was going to save it, but accidentally crumpled it later. Oops.

Mile 10 (13:16) Rock Creek Park…Kay (the woman from Oklahoma City we met at the beginning) caught up with us here (or vice-versa, I can’t remember) while running with her son. What a great guy – he was way ahead of her when he saw her on the out-and-back part, but stopped to run with her, losing a lot of time in the process. Lovely. He just wanted his mom to do well.

Mile 11 (12:44) Turn around (and a mini-downhill) at this point. Was hoping I’d see Devra (a friend) here, as she lives nearby. But I was so stressed and busy in the days before the race that I neglected to call her and see if she was going to come out. So any disappointment I felt was my own fault. But at least the scenery was gorgeous here, that always helps. Also looking for Ren behind me, as we were now on the back part of the out-and-back. Don’t see her, so I’m worried. But I needn’t have been, because here she is when my sister saw her. Doesn’t she look cheerful? Well, appearances can be deceiving because this is when she was cursing me.
renny

Mile 12 (12:36) Saw Kristina and Anne and Rachel again at the end of this mile, as we were leaving Rock Creek Park. Yay!

Mile 13 (13:36) Kind of a boring part. Goes by the Potomac, which was pretty, but not much support here. I think this is where Peggy started to feel nauseous. Or at least where she admitted it to me. There was a pretty strong headwind here, too, which didn’t help.

Mile 13.1 – overall time 2:47. Pretty well on pace for 5:30 race. Also when the sun comes out and Peggy starts to slow down. But let me say here, I may complain now that we walked too much, but I never really complain at the time about walking. I am fundamentally very lazy, and I like to walk. So when she said “can we walk?” I almost always said “yes” because that’s easier! However, had I been running alone, I probably would have tried harder to stick with the 3:1. Or at least not gone out too fast. I hope. The halfway point came right as we turned onto Constitution Avenue, a long stretch with nice scenery, spotty support, and most torturously of all, trucks lining the street selling hot dogs and hamburgers. I was hungry.

Mile 14 (13:14) Stuck my tongue out at the White House. Blew GW a raspberry.

Mile 15 (14:52) Going up to the Capital. Sun was out. Hot.

Mile 16 (14:36) Up Capitol Hill. Enough said.

Mile 17 (14:28) Down Capitol Hill. Much better. (In feeling, anyway. Time was only marginally better.)

Mile 18 (13:40) I remarked to Peggy that mile 18 feels like a landmark, even though it really isn’t. She grimaced at me, I suppose to stop herself from vomiting all over me. Kristina, Anne, and Rachel were here, and a bit further down, George. Yay! They gave us water bottles whenever we saw them, which was great. Not so much for drinking, more for pouring on our arms, legs, and head. Refreshing.

Mile 19 (13:16) Someone hands me a Starburst sucker. I love this person. We go over a few little bridges now and run around the Tidal Basin, whatever that is. The 14th Street bridge is tantalizingly in view, and though there was no question about making it in time, now that we can see it, it’s a bit more real. More strong headwind here. Evil! Go over some small bridges.

Mile 20 (13:04) I loved this part. Mile 20! The teens are done with! The road narrows here, we catch a high-five from some supporters. Always nice.

Mile 21 (14:36) The evil 14th Street Bridge. The one the slowpokes like myself worry about. But we made it in plenty of time. However, it’s long, dull, and had a vicious headwind. We walked a lot of this mile, and of…

Mile 22 (14:31), still the bridge. Evil! Evil! The flabby, soft underside of my arms is chafing. Ow. Stop to ask everyone on the side (aid & rescue people) for vaseline, no one has any. One aid guy says “wow, next time I’ll know to bring vaseline and nail clippers…” and goes on to list more seemingly obvious things. What did he have? A bunch of band-aids? Yeesh.

Mile 23 (14:21) My last mile with Peggy. We got chocolate chip cookies during this mile. Mmmmm! Soft, chewy, delicious Nestle Tollhouse cookies. Like manna from heaven, they were. Gorgeous. Peggy wasn’t feeling too hot after the cookie break, so she insisted I go on without her. I briefly grappled with my conscience, but ran on ahead. She said she didn’t think she’d be able to run much more.

Mile 24 (13:34) A cruelly dull portion of the race, just when you need support. Through the parking lots of the Pentagon. Who thought of this? I manage to get back on the 3:1 ratio again here, though I’m tiring.

Mile 25 (13:11) Water stop here, more dull dull scenery. Until the last half of the mile, when you start to see people again. A great pick-me-up. This is when my stomach gets butterflies. When I start to gasp and nearly sob. Everyone’s calling my name. Try to at least do 2:1 here. Maybe 1:1. Hard to run while gasping for breath and tummy is in knots.

Mile 26 (13:26) Allllmooooosssst there….still struggling with emotions, until I hit the evil hill at, oh, around 25.8. I really couldn’t believe it. It’s very wrong. My emotions turned from excitement to anger at the jerk who designed this racecourse. My energy is nearly sapped. But I know there isn’t much further to go. I see Denise, a TNT runner that we did our 20 miler with. I see Kristina, Anne, and Rachel.

Mile 26.2 (2:18) Sooooo close….I can see the finish line. Just as I’m approaching it, I hear my name being screamed by my mom, Jenny, George, Alice, Rob…and I turn to them and turn into monster lady. I yell “JUST LET ME FINISH!!!” and then turn and smile big for the camera as I cross the line. I was able to give a strong kick at the end, no thanks to evil hill. I apologize later for my annoyance at my supporters. They love me, they understand.

Get my medal, picture taken, blanket, etc, etc. Bananas and bagels and not much else in the finisher’s tent. Hmmph. Pick up my baggage and find my family. Yay! Go to the TNT tent, then the VIP tent to have a yummy sandwich and to attempt to see Peggy cross the finish line. I check the results on the handy-dandy computer there in the VIP tent and find that she’s already finished, 7 minutes after me.

About an hour later, finally see Ren cross the finish line. I was very worried that she wouldn’t make it. Apparently when Kristina and Anne saw her at mile 8 (and then later at 18), she was cursing Gary and I strongly. When we found her after the race, she was sobbing, partially out of happiness…she said “I’m so glad I never have to run again!”

Am pleased that I didn’t hit the wall. Glad I didn’t get blisters. My toenails are a-okay. I came through this marathon unscathed, except for a little chafing on my tummy where the pouch I was wearing clipped on to my shorts. (Boy was that pouch annoying. I didn’t train with it, duh… I was able to give it to Anne after 12 miles, at least.) My ankle stopped hurting during the marathon (thanks to the anti-inflammatory I popped like M&Ms) and hasn’t hurt since. Figures.

On the other hand, I wish I had insisted to Peggy that we slow down at the beginning. I knew we were going too fast. But I didn’t slow us down. I didn’t say anything. I wanted to find those dang Galloway pacers too! How disorganized of them to be *behind* us. How in the world did we pass them? Why are they only at the beginning of the pace group? Why not sprinkled throughout? There were a lot of people wearing the 5:30 pace tags on their backs, most of them had lost the leaders.

Next marathon? Maybe a spring 2005 marathon. For now, though, I think I’ll concentrate on 1. losing weight, 2. getting faster at shorter races. Hey, I think if you look at my post race report for London, I probably said the same stuff. Ha ha!

Final Stats:

10K – 1:17:56

Half – 2:47:35

21M – 4:38:09

Pace – 13:20

ClockTime – 06:08:30

ChipTime – 05:49:33

OverAll – 14115

OverSex – 5144

OverDiv – 1098

Two down…

I did it! I did it! Marathon #2!

Final time: 5:49:33. Not the improvement I had hoped, but better than London, at least.

Will be writing up full race report later. After I have some beers to celebrate…

Six days until the marathon

Six days until the marathon…

Was supposed to run 10 miles this weekend. My ankle is bothering me. This is not good. So I ran 2, went to gym, cycled 10, walked 1.5. At least I got the blood flowing. Yeesh. Talked to Ren, though. She got us some kind of anti-inflammatory medicine from her stepdad that should at least get us through the marathon. (Her knee is her problem.) Well, it’s not a terrible pain, just a niggling ache. But 26 miles of a niggling ache isn’t fun. Whatever.

The best part of the weekend, though, was that Kristie came in. We went to our old college friend Marcie’s wedding. I wasn’t really invited, but Kristie took me as her date. It was okay. I only knew Kristie and Anne and Herpreet, another old college friend, but it was basically a high school reunion for most of the guests. I did not go to high school with them, so you can imagine how fun it was. But the food was good, and it was nice to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Harry Anderson, of Night Court fame, was supposed to be there, he’s married to one of Marcie’s friends. (Yes, he married a hot young twenty-something.) But he didn’t show. Dang!

After the wedding, Kristie and I hung out at the pub, reminisced, that sort of thing. Yesterday I cleaned the house a bit. Just enough so that when I get back I’m not depressed by my messy house.

Tomorrow night is dinner at Jacque-Imo’s with the pub gang and Vince (yay!), as long as I can reschedule my dinner with Peggy and Emily for Wednesday night.

Before I go to work today, I need to call a guy named Squirrel who hangs out at the pub to fix my breaks. Don’t you just love his name? I’m sure it’s not the one his mom gave him, though.

10/16/03

I feel kind of like a fraud while training for this marathon. I haven’t been keeping up with my midweek runs, so while I’m in my “taper” now, I’m not running any less (or more) than I was three or four weeks ago. I don’t feel like my lack of midweek runs has hindered my long weekend runs (but then, how would I know, really? Perhaps I could be doing so much better?) so I don’t feel all that bad about them, but still. My left leg was really bothering me this morning while I tried to run on the treadmill. I had to give up and end up doing elliptical trainer work instead. It has hurt, though, at the beginning of my long runs, and I do get over it, so I’m not that concerned about race day, I just don’t want it to get worse.

Can’t believe it’s Thursday already. This week has gone by fast. Monday I’ll be full-time! Parking in the employee lot…a badge…health insurance beginning Dec 1…accruing vacation time (three hours every two weeks – that means 2 weeks of vacation a year! Woo!) and all the other good stuff that goes along with full-time permanent employment. Yay!

Am a bit stressed about this weekend. So much I want to do, so much I need to do…Friends I want to see, friends I won’t be able to see…ugh. I hate this. So I’ve made an executive decision to follow the following schedule this weekend:

Friday evening…hang out at pub, see Vince (who I haven’t seen in well over a year and is in town for only a week.)

Saturday morning…run 10-12 miles at Lafreniere Park

Saturday afternoon…clean my house! Do laundry! Whatever!

Saturday night…hang out with Kristie. She’s going to a wedding Saturday afternoon in N.O., I hardly ever get to see her, since she lives in Boston.

Sunday…what…ev….errrrr

Could run on Sunday morning instead, and see Polly play soccer, but I’d rather get it over with on Saturday and really enjoy myself Saturday night with Kristie. Yes, that sounds good. Because next week is going to be too crazy to get much done, I have to do it this weekend. Tuesday night I’m having dinner with Peggy & Emily; Wednesday night Dawn is coming home and I want to say hi and bye before I go to bed early because; Thursday I’m working at 7:30 am until 1, so I can leave to catch a flight at 3:50. Whew!

Training – long run

Long run was yesterday. Went really well. Met Peggy and Denise (the other girl doing MCM with TNT, but we never run with her because she’s faster) at Lakeside Mall at 5:15 a.m., then Peggy drove us across the Causeway to the Tammany Trace trailhead in Mandeville. It was pitch black when we got there shortly after 6. We got started, and not long after, it got light. It was foggy and misty, kind of cool but overcast, great running weather. Of course, cooler would have been nice, but alas.

We decided to do 10 miles out and back, and Chris was going to rollerblade out to us. He ended up catching up with us about 9 miles out, with much needed water. There’s a trailhead with bathrooms and a market about 5 miles out, but that’s the only place to stop and refill water bottles, so it was a good thing he met us when he did. He rollerbladed alongside us for a while and then headed back to the car for us to pick up GUs and more water. All in all, he did about 30 miles – what a friend!

Things got tough for Peggy and Denise (pains in calf and knee, respectively) at about 15 miles, and I ran with Chris rollerblading alongside me the rest of the way. I managed to keep up 6/1 and 5/1 pretty much the whole way. Peggy and Denise finished about 15 minutes after me. I had an exactly even split, the ten miles out and the ten miles back each took 2:25. Not the greatest time, but there were some stops in there. So I’m fine with it. We decided to try to hang out with the Galloway pacing group for a 5:30 finish at the marathon. They do 5/1 run/walk ratio, which I think we can handle. We’ll see.

We were late getting back to New Orleans, and Anne Comarda’s wedding started at 2, in Lafitte (which is about 35 minutes from my house) so I had exactly 15 minutes to shower my salt and sweat encrusted body, change, fix my hair, etc. Managed to do it! Yeah! Put my makeup on in the car (George drove) and made it there at 2:01 or something. Fortunately, the wedding didn’t start until 2:15 or so, so there was no embarrassing late entry (like when Ren and I got to our friend Nicole’s wedding, and she was about to walk down the aisle). Anne and Bill were there, thank goodness, as they were the only people we knew there (except for the bride, of course.)

Lovely wedding, very them, reminded me a lot of Nick and Annie’s wedding. I know I must have talked about the Piepers incessantly, probably sound obsessed. (I’m not!) Anne and Jay (not to be confused with Ann and Jay, whose wedding I went to in Baton Rouge in May. Same wedding planner, even.) sailed off on a sailboat from the B&B’s dock, while guests waved hankies and the band played. Lovely.

Anne and Bill came to the pub afterwards, Bill made friends with Colin (they bonded over baseball) and then Anne, Bill, and I went to the east bank. We were going to go meet the wedding people out, but we were all so tired (A & B had got in from the night before at about the same time I was waking up) that we just ate dinner and went our separate ways. At least I’ll see them again in two weeks!

I feel pretty decent today. A bit sore, naturally, but I had frozen a bunch of small water bottles and brought them to the Trace. By the time we had finished, they were somewhat thawed, so I poured the ice-cold water over my legs. Ahh, bliss! I think that had a lot to do with how I felt yesterday (fine) and today.

This week I figure I’ll do a few short runs, and 10-12 next weekend. Taper time! Yeah!

Zzzzz…

Am sleepy. Verrry sleeepy.

Spent Friday evening at Terry’s house, watching TV. Cable! Yeah! Got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning for my long run. 18 miles. Got to the park, where several buses were disgorging groups of runners with numbers. But oddly, there were no cars. It was pitch-black outside. It was surreal, but I found out a little while later that it was a private race for a bunch of convention attendees.

Got through my 18 miles in just under 4 hours, including stops to stretch (my knee, worryingly, really hurt at the beginning, but I guess I either stretched the pain away or, more likely, slaughtered it with several Advil. Several times.) Am happy with the time, at this rate, I won’t have any problem beating my London time.

The temperature, unfortunately, has warmed back up, so even though my run started off in cool weather, it ended up in full sun. To be fair, though, it wasn’t quite as hot as usual.

After the run, I went shopping with Terry and her friends (and George’s neighbors) Jen and Drew. Fun, but exhausting. Got some new sheets for very cheap. Yay! Love new sheets!

After that, I was able to rest for a few minutes before we went to dinner with Nick and Annie in Lafitte. Yummy dinner, great company, went to the pub afterwards, overall great night even though I drank too many beers and was absolutely exhausted. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through next Saturday. Set off the alarm at George’s house afterwards. Oops!

This afternoon, George and I rode our bikes (!!! George rode his bike!!!! it was sunny!!!!) to the Gretna Heritage Fest, about 5 miles away. Ate ice cream, listened to bands, walked around, rode the Spider. Felt nauseous. I’m getting old. I used to love those rides!

Am now very very tired. Must go to sleeeeeep.

Shooot. Just reread a bit of my London Marathon training journal, and I have clearly gotten very lazy when it comes to writing in my blog. Dang, I wrote much more interesting things before! Must…try…to…get…more…interesting…

08/22/03

I might have a real job soon! It’s actually at the company I’m temping at now. And I’d get to travel!! That’s the main thing, really. The pay is pretty low. I don’t even know about benefits yet, so I won’t get too excited. But to travel…woo! Yeah!

I got a card today from my sister-in-law’s father. He said that the last check Jennifer’s mom ever wrote was to me for my fundraising. It’s just so strange to know that. And ironic, considering it was a blood disease that killed her. I decided I’m going to make up satin ribbons with the names of the people I’m running in honor of or in memory of. But it’s just so meaningless, so little. What could I possibly do that would do justice to these people? Not a silly satin ribbon. Sigh.

Had dinner with the TNT people last night. I’m a little irritated that I’m going to have to do a 16 mile run alone, the morning of Nick and Annie’s wedding. Not that it’s then, but that no one is willing to compromise when I need to run on a certain day. Hmm. Well, whatever. Eight long boring laps of Lafreniere Park. Won’t kill me.

14 miles tomorrow at LSU, with Chris. And Krispy Kreme afterwards!

07/02/03

I didn’t mention the other day how my five mile run went. It was a group run, and I think I made a new friend, Emily. She’s about my age, and we’re about the same speed (right now, anyway) so I’m happy about that. The run went well, even though it was hot. We’re having another group run this weekend, and it’s at 6 a.m., so hopefully it won’t be as hot.

Got a temp job yesterday. Decided to call Adecco to get back on their list, and they had a job come in right as I was calling. So it’s $8 an hour (more than B&N, at least) and indefinite. So I’m pretty happy about that. Got my first unemployment check today, and it was $105. So yeah…won’t be living off that!

Ran four miles on the treadmill last night. Other than the fact that my right knee and ankle hurt, it went well. I think I banged my ankle on something while riding Terry’s bike yesterday. I hope that’s why it hurt and not any more sinister reason.

We had an almost-hurricane on Monday. It rained a LOT, but nothing major happened. George and I were watching a Star Trek movie (I promised…) and the power went out. Saved! Of course, now we have to watch it anyway, so I was only able to delay the inevitable.

Taking my computer in to get fixed so I can update my website and figure out how much money I’ve earned so far…

Eva (Irish friend of Annie’s) went home yesterday. We had lots of fun on Monday, getting trapped in the French Quarter, got soaked, almost blown away. Whoops! This is why you shouldn’t go out in a hurricane!

05/29/03

Didn’t work out yesterday. George and I went to see the new Matrix movie instead. Woah. It made my head hurt. In a good way, I guess. I only had to close my eyes during one scene (when they were fighting with swords – don’t like blood, especially inflicted by sharp-object-wounds. Blech.)

Today I got another $100 in checks and two donations – a tour for 10 people of Mardi Gras World and also 2 passes to a Haunted History Tour of the French Quarter. Cool. Yay! This is getting really exciting! And now I’ve actually hit 10% of my monetary goal! Woo!

New PR

Yay new PR! Saturday was the Fat Boy 5K. My goal was to do it in under 35 minutes, which I thought was sort of ambitious since my old PR was 36:11. I’d have been happy with anything under that, but boy did I go under!

The race was in Baton Rouge, and I ran it with Chris, Teresa, her sister Larissa, and Joe. Oh, and Hunter the dog. We made up a team (had to weigh 650 lbs, we did that easily) and they combined our times at the end. I’ll just say now that we came nowhere near winning for the team time, but it was fun anyway.

Friday night I had gone to a baby shower for a friend who works at Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t even make it into Baton Rouge until about midnight. I was a little worried that a lack of sleep would affect my race, but as usual, I slept like a rock at my mom’s house and was pretty well-rested for the race. Chris and I rode together to the race, and it was a gorgeous morning. A bit too sunny for my liking for a race, but fortunately the course was very shady, you never actually had to run in the sun. The temperature was in the 60s, and there was no humidity, so it really was nice running weather.

What I’m never prepared for in Baton Rouge is hills. New Orleans is literally flat as a pancake, there are absolutely no hills, no undulations whatsoever in the roads, so even though Baton Rouge would be considered flat by most standards, compared to New Orleans, it’s positively mountainous. So I struggled a bit with the hills, but it was not a really big deal.

So the race started with Chris and Joe lined up near the front, and Teresa, Larissa and I in the middle. Teresa and Larissa went ahead of me for the first half of the race, but after that I passed them up (slow and steady, etc, etc) and met up with a struggling Joe. We ran together a bit, but soon enough, I left him in the dust. Woo hoo! Okay, it’s mean and petty, but all these people are thin and healthy, and even though they’re not runners, I didn’t really think I’d beat them. I’m a terrible friend. Sorry, guys!

I was keeping a very steady pace for the first two miles, 11:01 for the first, 11:00 for the second, and during the third mile, I knew I’d be able to go under 35 minutes. Before I knew it, I could see the end, but there was a steady grade that wasn’t pretty. The clock at the finish was approaching 34 minutes, and I knew I wouldn’t make it by the clock, but I’d crossed the start line about 30 seconds after the gun, so I was safe.

By my watch, I crossed in 33:38! Ack! 2:33 faster than my PR! Amazing! Wow! I couldn’t believe it. Yay! After that, we all met up (Teresa, Joe, and Larissa all came in around 36:00 – see, they also beat my PR, those slender people kill me!) and had Krispy Kremes, sausage po-boys, eggs and grits…well, it was the Fat Boy…

So that was my exciting race. There really aren’t any more 5Ks until the fall around here, so I will have to wait until then to reach my next goal…sub-30:00!

But I have decided to possibly sign up with Team in Training for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so I’ll be training a lot this summer. Will be hellishly hot. But should be good conditioning. We’ll see. There’s a meeting on the 30th. The cool thing is, last night at the pub, I was talking to this woman Cindy, and she did the Maui Marathon with TNT, and she might do MCM with me, so I’d have a training buddy. Yay!

Last night was another wedding reception at the pub, this time a crawfish boil. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!! Oh god, it was so good. And I only have to wait two weeks until the next one, at Kettie’s mom’s house; it’s her wedding shower. And then the following weekend my mom’s having one because my brother/sister-in-law/sister/her boyfriend are all coming to town. Woo hoo! Crawfish out the wazoo!

12/09/02

Yay! George is home. Has been for a week. As usual, neglectful of my blog. Was a very nice reunion, no making out at the airport, not to worry. There was some couple going at it right in front of the entire arrivals area. Niiiiice.

Tooth isn’t hurting anymore. Think it was a sinus infection. Yay. Have to go to dentist again on Wednesday, just to be sure.

Got lots of nice presents from George from London. Underground socks, Coldplay CDs, book, pens, pub sign, underground sign, yay yay yay! We went and saw Harry Potter last night. Was good second time around. George liked it. Work is crazy right now. Well, actually, kind of dull. We aren’t allowed to do any projects, just help people, but they have so many people working that it’s never very busy. Hmm. And I have this weekend off, for the Celebration in the Oaks 2 mile run. So maybe the following weekend will be bad, but whatever.