Although I was disappointed about not being able to go to the beach, there were lots of pluses to the way the weekend turned out -- besides the money Doug earns taking pictures!
First, being home meant that we could catch up with our friends Martin and Jenn, who had been away for almost two weeks. Who can complain about time with great friends eating pizza and ice cream?
Being home also meant I could continue to indulge my resurgent running obsession. I knew there was another race on the Wilmington Riverfront, and if we were going to be home anyway, why not sign up?
It was a beautiful day to be on the Riverfront, and the crew teams were out early too:
But on my way to the race, I felt really awful.
I admit it--I am a caffeine addict. My drug of choice is Diet Coke, and we had run out the day before, so I had not had my early morning fix.
On my way to Wilmington, I stopped at WaWa to get a 20-ounce bottle, but by then I was already feeling the effects of withdrawal. I had a terrible headache and was feeling nauseated and lightheaded.
I started to wonder whether an hour was going to be long enough for the effects to kick in by the time I had to start running.... Even as I walked to the start line, I wasn't sure, and I was feeling like I shouldn't have even wasted the time and money to enter the race.
My last two 5K times had been 24:22 and 24:24. The way I was feeling, there was no way anything better than those times was going to happen. But the starter went off at 9:00, and we were on our way. I began to feel a bit better and hoped that maybe I would at least match my last two times. I knew from my MapMyRun program, which talks to me as I run, that I was holding a sub-8:00 pace.
When I hit the three-mile mark, I was stunned to see the clock ahead of me reading 22:14. I had one-tenth of a mile to go. Could I make it in less than 45 seconds?
I put everything I had left into finishing, but when I crossed the line I still wasn't sure of my official time.
A look at the computer a few minutes later told me that I had done it! My "gun" time was 24:01, but my chip time, which registers when I actually crossed the start and finish lines, showed 23:58.
All the crappy feelings of an hour earlier disappeared, and I felt great.
My prize was a $20 gift certificate to the same restaurant to which Christine had won a $25 card two weeks ago. We had already planned lunch together, but I think now dessert will be on our order too.
I am not a person who likes pink AT ALL, but I recently bought a pair of "magenta" lightweight running shoes for racing because they were on sale and that was the only color left in my size.
When I told Doug my results, he posted on Facebook and referred to the pink beauties as my "Wonder Woman" shoes:
They're kind of growing on me.
Doug has photos to take again this weekend, but Jodie and I will be heading to the beach and hoping that the predicted thunderstorms go somewhere else.
And since I didn't have a lot of photos for this entry, I'll add one of her lying on the deck with the flowers that are waiting to be planted in our yard:
My "flower girl" can't wait to be a beach girl again.
No comments:
Post a Comment