Catching Up

So I have been slacking. Completely and totally slacking. I have since run the Rock 'N' Roll, Diva and the Crab...and I'm not dead yet! Actually, I have signed up for the Southern Fried Challenge in NC which consists of a 5k on Saturday and a 1/2 on Sunday and then a week later I have signed up for the half in Richmond. Its for the blanket, I swear. In the midst of signing up and running I haven't been writing. Shame on me. I have some catching up to do.

First and most awful and yet somehow, my most proudest race was the Rock N Roll, Virginia Beach. My gallant BRF joined me in early morning, hot humid long runs that were so sticky you expanded more energy pushing through the air then actually running. I get a double calorie count for those runs. We were determined to be ready for all the horror stories we had heard. Then it cooled down. We danced, we ran and I doggedly checked the chameleon weather every morning. I couldn't possible get that lucky. And I wasn't.

At 3am I got up, desperately berated the coffee to percolate faster and tried to be happy that I was up to run that early. For whatever reason, the City of Virginia Beach ha decided it was better to park up 15 minutes away and bus us to and from the race, which meant you had a deadline to make the last bus. Needless to say, we were there waaaaaay early for a 7:30 race. And the heat and more importantly, the humidity were back with a sock to the gut. So much for cool and rainy. We were even there early enough for me to eat breakfast, or at least my version of it, which was water and a bagel. Normally, I don't eat before a race, because my tummy doesn't have time to settle before I start. This time I did. So we are there early and we are tired. Its humid enough to make you think you had extra clothes on, and I ate breakfast. Not a good start.

 But thanks to my BRF, I got to potty like a rock star. I highly recommend buying Brooks shoes for the potty pass. You'll eventually need the shoes anyway and its worth it. My BRF thought she would be able to use it because she was running the second half of the relay and gave it to me. She gets double BRF points for that. You will never want to use a normal port a potty again.  She gave me that wonder piece of sunshine that morning. It flushed. It had soap, sanitizer, snacks on the way out and even better- no line.

Brooks Potty Paper.

It did not make me a faster runner though. I totally, completely hit the humid wall at about mile 8.5/9. The sun came out, there was no shade and I just felt done. Instead, I popped a Gu, slugged some Gatorade, called myself a wussy and told my self to suck it up. A salt packet later and I was moving again. Once I was back on the main road I hit shade and picked up the pace. I finished. It was my worst time but I had tackled the beast and won. My feet in the ocean at the end had never felt so good.

 

 

Next up was Diva. I had totally planned on enjoying this race. It was to be a fun run with my BRF and I was totally looking forward to it and the wine we would be tasting after. Yeah for running road trips involving wine. Why don't they have a vodka or rum race?