Thanksgiving quickie

I was able to drag my lazy ass out of bed last Saturday.

34th annual Turkey Trot 5K & 10K

Where: Decatur,IL

Date: November 22, 2008

Time: 9am

Weather conditions: overcast, breezy, temp 24

surface: asphalt roads and bike paths of Fairview Park

Decided to push myself through a 10K for the hell of it. It’s longer

than I’d run in awhile but seem doable. I hadn’t pre-registered for

this run, so I got there early enough to get signed in and pick up a

timing chip and bib number. It felt mmm…pretty fuckin chilly. I got

in about a half mile jog just to get my blood flowing and made my way

to the starting line. There was kind of a wide, almost four lane

road, mob at the the start. I asked the guy beside me if he could see

a timing device ahead of us. I wasn’t sure how we were all going to

be funneling into what is usually a pretty narrow area to trip our

timers. He said maybe they were just going to credit us all with the

same start and then just record the finish. That’s what they did. I

ate a pretty big stagger on that one. It was of no real concern since

I was just there for the run and to test myself a little. Having said

that it’s always in the back of your mind what your last time in that

distance was. Without going back and looking through this journal,

I’m going to say it was 1 hour and some seconds.

I settled into a comfortable jog fairly quickly and put it in auto

pilot. I cruised along fairly easily. The first 4 miles were in a

river valley with a turn around at about the 3 mile mark. The next

mile and a half retraced the original course before turning up a

pretty spectacular hill. The hill seem to last forever but was

probably only about a three quarters of a mile. After the crest of

the hill there was a slight downhill to a flat and then the finish.

The hill ate me up. I went through the finish with my tongue hanging

out and panting like a dog. I wasn’t the last one across the line but

there weren’t many behind me. I think most of the peple ran the 5K.

There were several local high school teams there and they were all

doing the 5K. It was way more difficult than I’d anticipated. I kind

of gathered myself together and trudged up the hill to the main

pavillion where the food was being dished out. I grabbed one of

everything and a couple of Gatorades and wandered to the truck. I

peeled out of the wet shirts I had on and into a dry one. Those dry

shirts always feel so good. As I was pulling out of the parking lot,

though I’d long since stopped panting and my pulse was back to

normal, I was whipped. I’d had big plans to go do that run and then

come home and pick up all the leaves in my yard and finish taking

down what little garden trash I had left. Before I got out of Decatur

I already knew the rest of my day was going to consist of pizza, beer

and a lounge chair in front of a TV playing college football all day.

When I got home I found, to my dismay, that I’d neglected to remove

the timing chip from my shoe. It was still wound through the laces.

That means I had no official time. Normally there is somebody at the

finish taking those chips. I’m guessing because of the cold they were

taking them in a heated room at the pavillion rather than sitting

there in the cold doing that. I can’t fault them for that. My brain

just wasn’t functioning quite right when I finished. I think the time

showing on the clock was at 1:03 and change when I was approaching so

it’s no huge loss getting no official time. It just sort of pisses me

off. I mailed the chip back to them on Monday. It was too far to just

turn around and drive it back.

Before I’d run that thing I’d already signed up for a 10 miler in

Alton along the Mississippi River this Saturday. It was a pretty

cheap fee. If I decide it might be too much for me to handle I won’t

be out much if I blow it off.

While I ponder that, you all have a good Thanksgiving.

…and I lived to tell about it

 

Red Eye Run 8K

Where: Joliet,IL

Date: November 16th, 2008

time: 7am

weather conditions: overcast, 10 to 12 mph breeze, slight spit of snow, temp 29

surface: asphalt and concrete – the streets of Joliet

The overnight skies remained cloudy so the morning temp wasn’t as cool as expected. The breeze still made for a fairly brisk dawn. The winter temps have come on fairly quickly and I haven’t quite acclimated to them yet. It might have taken a mile and a half before I broke a sweat.
This was the first year for this event. They had plenty of volunteers. Lots of the local constabulary manned the intersections for traffic control. For reasons unclear there were actually a couple of bands playing along the route… at 7 in the morning…with below freezing temps. I apreciate the effort but didn’t really understand it. A blonde woman in a 3/4 length winter coat, wailing out a pretty impressive cover of Heart’s “Barracuda” to our left. On the right, a tattooed man in his boxers and nothing else, standing in the cold listening after he’d picked up his morning copy of the Chicago Tribune from the curb. Apparently oblivious to the chill. Ahhhhh… Sundays in Joliet! The race started outside and finished inside Joliet Municipal Stadium. Another band was playing there.

As per usual I lined up at the back of the pack to stay out of the rabbits’ way. My only real intention was to get my feet wet in an actual event again since it had been so long. Settled into a nice slow pace early on and road it all the way around.
The last mile and a half was aginst the breeze but it all went as well as I could have hoped. Never had to stop and walk. I did have some guy who looked to be about 75 pass me at about the 3 mile mark. More power to him! I had no real juice for a big push at the end but wasn’t just exhausted, so that’s always a minor victory for me. I crossed the line in something slightly less than 53 minutes.

Lots of breakfast type food at the finish along with water, juice, beer, bloody marys or whatever you felt the need for. I grabbed a water, juice, banana and a couple of those chocolate Snicker’s bars with the high protein and fiber. With the cold temperatures they were rock hard but they were pretty tasty. It was a good run and I’d do that one again.

About 9am this morning, which is about 8+ hours from now, there’s a 10K Thanksgiving run in Decatur. If I can get my lazy ass out of bed and get over there I’ll give that one a whirl, just to push my long weekend run out a little bit. It’s always a little easier for me to do the longer runs with a throng of people about instead of slogging them by myself.
It’s just after midnight here and the local temp is 14 so it may be a cool one in the morning. We’ll see!

November post

It’s amazing how easily I lapse out of posting here.

I just dreamt I walked out my front door to get my mail. There was a line of school children about a block long in single file in front of my house. They were allowed to investigate, a couple at a time, an archaelogical dig around the maple tree in my front yard. I plucked the mail from my mailbox and looked upon the dig with only enough interest to see that it was taking place. Shortly after returning to the house, there was a knock at the door. One of the adults chaperoning the children was very enthusiastic about a find that had just been made in my front yard. He said it was some kind of ancient submarine. I was generally irritated to be dragged away from my TV watching to see this but went anyway. There, laying in my front yard was a 20ft long kayak. 6 seats in the back. 3 slightly wider seats in the front. I can only guess that the seats in the front were first class. I mentioned to the adult it wasn’t actually a submarine. He was still amazed by it’s great age. I pointed out the Busch beer cans under the rear seat. They were aluminum cans. That meant it was considerably younger than me. There was no excavation in the yard where this kayak could have been unearthed from. Then I awoke, still kind of shaking my head.

Red Eye 8k in Joliet,IL on Sunday morning. This will finally be the first actual running thing I’ve been to since the half marathon last February. It’s at 7am and supposed to be considerably below freezing. Should be interesting.

Just a quick add on. I just noticed that I’m really only posting about once a month, and not even that in September. I suck even worse than I thought. (And I was thinking mucho sucko)