This weekend sure was crazy and I realize a good portion of my life probably qualifies as crazy. In fact, you might even say my lifestyle is "CRAZY" and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. However, even for me, this weekend's adventure was a wild and bumpy ride.
As we headed to Mird's after school Friday for the Snow Moon Trail Run Saturday afternoon, I decided I should probably figure out what distance race I had signed up for. I had Hazel login to my email and a few moments later, I learned I'd be running a 15K! Now 15K sounds really good if you talking lotto winnings, or end of year bonuses, but when you've just run 9.5 miles with your running buddies earlier that same morning, running 9.3 miles the next day sounds a bit dicey. By the time I arrived to Mird's, I'd adjusted to the idea and was getting excited for our adventure! I was going to run 15K! Mird and Courtney were more sensible and had signed up for the 5K and Marisa, well she's crazy like me so she was also in for the sufferfest also known as the 15K! (it was loops a 5k route so basic math means we ran 3!) Trust me each time you pass the finish, you consider quitting when you're in as much pain as I was! At least I was sensible enough that I didn't sign up for the 25K!
At the beginning of the race, Marisa shot off like a graceful gazelle up the snow covered hill as I watched on in awe. She is pretty awesome; She's such an amazing, talented, and strong runner! She finished with an 8:36 average which I'm pretty sure I couldn't do on a dry pavement course these days! Me, on the other hand, I slipped and slid and waddled up that same hill while saying, "I guess I probably should've trained for this one!" I think a few other runners found this amusing because they laughed, but me, well, I was beginning to think the day might not be so amusing...My overall pace was 9:46 and I was challenged the entire time! The trail was a hot mess, well actually a cold mess, but a mess nonetheless!
To make matter worse, there was a shooting range right across the street so the entire time we were running around in the woods, we heard a constant barrage of gunshots. This was unsettling to say the least. In my mind, I was being hunted by the mafia and that vision goes way back to our childhood fantasies! This was excellent motivation, but equally terrifying!
Also noteworthy, Saturday was day 101 of my running streak. Mird thought I should dress like a Dalmatian and bark like a dog, but in the end, we compromised and went with a St Patty's Day theme since our favorite St Patty's Day race in Clare is already VIRTUAL this year. The sisters have officially boycotted all virtual races for 2021. We are committed to the real deal, or no race. No more Virtual BS!
Despite my slow overall pace, I did manage to pull off negative splits the entire way as the course was a small victory! I also met a couple of super nice girls on the first loop who were running their very first 25K which was so exciting to me that I ran with them for awhile and chatted about their adventures! Near the beginning of the second loop, I knew I had a nasty blister forming and a toenail that was dying so I was in a fair amount of pain. This made loop number 2 the least fun for me because I was fighting the mental race demons. By loop 3, I had pulled myself together and I had my fastest loop by far even though I was in pain!
Jello shots before and after the race is always a good thing so we went ahead and did that!
And in the spirit of Covid we did communal jello shots because Mird couldn't find her jello shot cups and we ain't scared of the Rona!!! Don't worry though we each had our own spoon and we didn't double dip.
I danced into the finish not on purpose, but as a means of staying upright. Despite my wicked dance moves, I nearly fell flat on my face with all the spectators looking on. It took my breath away. Marisa snapped a photo of the precise moment when I managed to catch myself. I think it's the best finish I've ever had at a race...
This race was brought to you by the letter F and by the word of the day, FOCUS. As everyone knows, Mird and I are super good at focus. Once upon a time there was a chicken.... oops I kind of got side tracked there for a second. Oh and by Shorts Brewing Company, the official beer sponsor who provided us enough finish line beer that even though I have the worst driving record of the four of us, I had to drive home because I am the only one in our quartet who doesn't drink beer! Everyone got a cool beer glass (we didn't even have to go to the Goodwill either), a medal and a race bib of course!
Post race, I drove us home super safe style, we did our pudding shots, ate a snack, took quick showers and headed off to our motherly bowing adventure. It was an epic one!
Yes, we took the kids bowling and out for pizza after the race and the kids had an awesome time. I guess Covid bowling is all the rage because I'm pretty sure they'd still be bowling if we hadn't dragged them away! When we were bowling we realized, our last names go alphabetically in order A (Courtney), B (Marisa), C (Vern), D (Mird); I guess we need someone with a last name beginning with E to join our squad! This is where the ABCD in the title originates. The 101, well that of course was my streak day count yesterday and after this morning's 3 mile recovery run, I am now on to 102!
PS TriToFinish was the name of the timing company which I didn't think was a big deal until I was just finishing the first loop and my toe started screaming at me to stop because it was blistered, dying and ready to explode. Then it became a legit battle to finish. I rose to the challenge because I pulled off negative splits the last two loops! We were an impressive squad too. Marisa won 3rd overall female. Mird got 2nd in her age group. I got 4th in my age group and Courtney got 6th!
Vern and Mird Out
No comments:
Post a Comment