Mission Accomplished

Happy Saturday everybody! I'm very glad to see a lot of the CT running chicks are starting to post their race reports (or at least let us know they all made it and that race reports are forthcoming!). I can't wait to hear how all the people running Chicago tomorrow do as well!!

So, I guess we've moved straight from summer to winter. The 2 or 3 days of 'fall' we had were so quick I don't think I even remember them! The weather guy said a cool front would be moving through Thurs afternoon and predicted weekend temps of 70. Perfect!! So, Thurs afternoon rolled around and a definite chill was in the air at lunch and a light mist was falling. Thurs night we geared up for a 3.2 mile run. Normally we would have done 5, but with the Oktoberfest 5K on Sat am we didn't want to wear our legs down. We warmed up for .3 miles, then kicked the pace up to near 5K paces for 2 miles and then ran the last mile fairly slowly. We were both pretty tired so neither one of us wanted to push that hard on the last mile. I was running it a little faster than Brent and I saw a little white fluffy dog approaching me. He wasn't barking or anything, but you never know and I didn't want to take any chances so I Dazed the fire out of him. He casually turned the other direction and headed towards Brent. Well, crap on me, I didn't want to be the cause of Brent's being eaten by White Fluffy so I turned back around and Dazed him so Brent could catch back up. It was a pretty miserable night to run - the mist was quite steady and it was pretty cool. It was one of those rains where the mist is just enough that you end up being soaked and it's constantly getting in your eyes. I love to run in the rain on hot summer nights, and even in the daylight it's not too bad, but Thurs night was just plain miserable. When we got back we took Pips for a 2/3 mile walk, I had only gotten to take him for 2/3 that morning so I had promised him for walking later. The mist had lightened up and he always enjoys his opportunities to socialize and garner neighborhood attention.

So, we had both had some pretty good runs lately and were pretty excited about Oktoberfest. We managed to get up early and actually leave at a time where we would have plenty of time to get settled in pre-race and not end up rushing to make it through the lines before the gun sounded. The shirt was very cool and the pre-race lines moved very quickly. This race moved like a well oiled machine. But it was friggin cold. We've been running low 80's for the most part lately. Race time temp today? 52 with a 'feels like' of 45. Yeah. For some of you guys this is probably 'call everyone we're gonna have a picnic and grill out' weather, but this is TN and today's run temp was a full 47 (FORTY-SEVEN) degrees cooler than my run last Sunday (which was way too hot to be running in, but that's beside my point). I always do whatever I can to train in all conditions - rain, sun, hills, etc - but it's pretty hard to train in temps you just haven't had in months and months. We're not people who typically warm up, but today we did a lap around the block to get our lungs and muscles accustomed to the cold temps. Pretty much everyone else was doing the same as well today. I decided to run in a sleeveless singlet and my running tights b/c I knew once I got going I would be too hot in my running jacket. But it was very hard to part with it anyway!! The race lined up, and off we went. Sort of. This is a pretty popular race (I'm going to guess 700 ppl), so a lot of race virgins end up being in the mix. I'm not tops at common sense, but you would think they'd line up in the back, right? Not so much! I don't mind walking up to the mats at the start of the race, but once you hit the mat RUN! I ended up elbowing 5 or 6 people who just kept on walking at the start mats. Didn't they know I wanted a PR about as much as I want to win Powerball today??? I had set my Garmin Training Assistant at 26 minutes for my goal. This was the first time I had run vs my 'girl' and I was really impressed. My previous 5K PR was 26:34, and I desperately wanted to break 26 minutes this year, and 5Ks are going to be sparse in about a month. So, off we went, elbows flying. This is a beautiful part of town. There are tons of old, historic houses -circa 1900- and most of the roads are that brick/cobblestone type stuff. We ran past some beautiful homes, past some restaurants that I'd heard of and wanted to try but never actually seen, and then back towards our State Capital/Bicentennial Mall and then we actually ran through the Farmers Market. Portions of the market are outdoors (mostly the flower and some veggie vendors) and then there's an indoor section with international groceries and food vendors. We ran through the outdoor piece and then they had someone holding the doors and we ran through the inside of the building! All of the shoppers stopped and stood to the side, cheering us on. Throughout the race a lot of the residents of this part of town were out and cheering for us, which was great. There's not a lot of crowd support around here, and even though this is one of the larger races of the year there wasn't a single news crew there. And all of their offices are within 5 miles of this spot. Pitiful, I guess they're more interested in covering drug busts and traffic accidents than people getting out, doing something healthy, and raising money for good causes. There were several hills throughout the course, and as we headed towards the finish line we started our way up another one. I had managed to stay ahead of the Garmin girl the whole time, and no way was I going to let her take me on this hill. I did in, and gave it everything I had left on the final stretch. As soon as I crossed the line I stopped my watch and looked at my time - 25:50!!! TWENTY FIVE FLIPPIN FIFTY. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry. I had to tell someone so I told the old guy who cut off my chip. He's actually at every race and I really think he's so nice and I always go to his chip removal line. I'm sure he has no idea who I am but I always remember him. He was very happy for me and so I went along my way, got my beer mug and some water (always important that a race have BOTH) and went back to watch Brent finish. I won't tell you his time but we were both very happy with our results.

We were on cloud 9 so we headed back to the car, got our jackets, walked around the Oktoberfest booths, watched the awards ceremony (in a race this large and popular it would take divine intervention for us to place!) and then walked around the Market and BiCentennial Mall for a while. They have little bronze plaque things for each county, so I found the one for Memphis (my hometown) and had Brent take my pic with it. We took some other pics of the sights and then headed over to the local running store for some more Gu and some warm winter gear. I don't have much in the way of winter running clothes, so it's time to start stocking up. No way can I run on the treadmill all winter this time, it nearly killed me last year! We got some gloves and head-gear and I'm going to order a few more things off the 'net.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Saturday. See you tomorrow!!

Rachel

Exercise -

Fri - 1 CHILLY mile am walk with Pips
Sat - 5K race and walking all around downtown