Day 171: Chattahoochee Road Runners 10K: The Finale! ***UPDATED***

Well you've seen me through it all...when I started training for the 10K, when I was too sick to run, when I finally put some gusto back into my training, when I was set back with a near-puking experience, and when I triumphed around Chastain Park. It's been a not-so-solid ride with this training, having been broken up by TWO trips as well as a bout of illness.

But the 10K came, in due time, and I finally got the chance to strut my stuff.

Mark and I woke up on Saturday for the 10K, only to find that there was a steady stream of rain just going at it outside. Checked the weather--no chance of it letting up all day.

But the rain couldn't deter me, I was so jazzed up to get this thing out of the way. I've put off a lot of what I've needed to do for Atlanta Yoga Scene, my yoga practice in general, and this blog aside to get myself in running shape, and by god, I just wanted it to be over with.

Must have a sense of humor about oneself running!
Please click on it to make it bigger...haha

Plus, I had a REALLY good run a couple days before the race, and I was thinking I'd champion this thing and surprise myself by running the whole way.

So Mark and I drove to the race, parked and hung out in his car near the check-in and start line, to avoid going into the cold rain.  Mark was generally peeved about the lost sleep getting up for this thing, dreading the upcoming wet socks and cold appendages, and annoyed by my excitement.  Me, I was giddy as a freaking three year old about to go on an excellent adventure through the Hershey's factory or something.

I also want to interject that I was excited because I thought that I had a fighting chance at beating Mark in the race. I had beat him in the Peachtree 10K last year, and he hadn't trained as hard as I had for this race, so I was CERTAIN that I had a chance. He's an athletic guy, but I'm determined, dammit.

We eventually succumbed to the fact that we were going to get wet and the rain would continue, and waiting in the car was delaying the inevitable, so we went out to the starting line.

After a little playful "I'll be waiting for you at the finish line" banter, the shot was fired and we were off!

I started my slow and steady pace, feeling great, but noticed a lot of people running past me. I thought it was one of those everyone-starts-too-fast-and-walks-later kinds of things, but after two miles, I was the last of the last and NO ONE was walking. AT ALL. And in fact, I only ever saw a handful of people walking the whole race...me being a shameful participant towards the end.

Now, a history: when I ran the Peachtree last year, I was about middle of the pack, but that's because the pack was (literally) 60,000 people, and more than a couple who hadn't trained for the race. I was expecting something similar. I knew that the people running the CRR had trained some, but I had too! Thus my surprise when everyone, and I mean EVERYONE ran clear past my 10:00 mile pace within the first couple of miles.

I...felt...like...a...total...freaking...loser.

The psychological warfare waged by this fact was brutal. I'm a 23 year old girl with no more juice in the tank than a 60-something year old man.

FML.

Drowned, near dead rat.

I ran as well as I could, I guess, but was defeated again when I had to stop at mile four. Although I was semi-proud of that four miles, the fact that I had to stop really took a toll. I knew that I had only ever really pushed myself to four miles, but I'd always felt really good after those four miles, as if I could have taken another mile without an issue. And they always say that you run better in a race than in training.

I had relied on voodoo luck to make it.

Bollocks. My fault.

I trudged through the rest of the race, embarrassed, unhappy, tired and aware that I'll probably not make it to half-marathon status this year. Or ever.

I ended up at the finish line at 1:03 something at the VERY bottom-most part of the pack...to Mark cheering me on with "I MADE IT IN 55!!!!"

While I was genuinely excited for my wonderful, loving boyfriend, my inner jealous, competitive self was like "RUB IT IN WHY DON'T YOU?!"

Anyhoo, since Mark was waiting with his dad, I put on a happy face and did the "yay, I feel great!" routine, but after Mark's dad made a comment about the winner's time of 38:00 being slow, I decided that I'm done with running. I'm last in my age group and damn near last in the race.


Okay, okay, so my last time was 1:10, meaning I took a minute per mile off my time, so I should be happy about that. Mostly, however, I feel like a loser. But I did run a 10K in the rain.

Day 167: All the Way Around!

On day 167, I finally ran all the way around 3-mile, winding, hilly Chastain Park, no stopping!

This in and of itself sounds pretty good compared to my last attempt at running around this park, but what makes it better is that I had taken a four-hour red eye flight from Portland to Atlanta that morning, slept for about two of those hours, got into Atlanta at 6:00 AM, WENT TO WORK, and came home and ran the best I ever have.

Oh, and that I hadn't run in the four-ish days I had been in Portland, and had turned my bloodstream into beer and doughnut superhighway. 

(NOTE: This is also impressive behavior post-overnight flight if you remember after my San Diego red eye, that I slept from 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM.)

But yes, the run was simply fantastic. I got up the winding hill no problem, as if I had blown the hill up in my mind to be way more of what it ever was. The long straightaway that I almost puked on last time was just a breeze, and I rounded the corner, ready for the next hilly climb with plenty of juice left in the tank. When I got to my car, I even thought that I should just keep running because I felt so good. I didn't keep going because all the race training guides say to take it easy the week of the race, but now, 6 days in retrospect, I wish I had seen how far I was capable of.

I'll see on my next run :)

Day 127: Road Runner

On Day 127, I began training for the Chattahoochee Road Runner's 10K, which I am using to get a qualifying spot for the Peachtree Road Race 10K, from which I will springboard into the Thanksgiving Day Half-Marathon 2011. If nothing goes horribly wrong.

If you read my goals post, you would see that I had planned to run a half-marathon before my birthday this year, but I'm a girlfriend, blogger extraordinaire, entrepreneur-in-the-making, yogi, and 9-5 office drone. Cut me a couple months slack.

Why am I doing this? I'm not sure exactly. I just feel like I need to be celebrating what my young body can do. If I ever run a marathon, I will do it only once, and only to say I did it. And, my gorgeous, ambitious, novice runner friend Katie Bahran is just killing it up in New York with her running goals and I'm jealous.

My workout was pretty easy, but I hadn't run since attempting the Peachtree last year. Mark some how smuggled me into Gym of Buckhead (uh...she forgot her keys...uh..she's under my name...uh...she's a guest looking to join the gym! (last excuse worked). I got on the treadmill and walked a half mile, ran a whole mile, walked another half, ran another whole mile, and walked another half mile. I could have run for another mile, except for the fact that Mark had been ripping up the treadmill on full speed during this time and was ready to peace out (rightfully so).

So yes, Day 1 of training was nothing to write home about, but I've started yet another "thing" (heaven help me!) and I'm sticking to it.

You can sleep when you die, right?