Sun, May 20, 2018
So I signed up to run only the 10K this year as my winter training time was wonky due to the “great basement flood of 2018” in January (treadmill was out of commission – actually destroyed due to water). But I thought I could definitely get a 10K in. My attitude for this race was just to have fun and enjoy it! I even bought a sunflower headband at the expo to wear to celebrate the occasion.
The good news was that the night before the race the weather prediction for the day was great…coolish with upper 50’s to low 60’s in the morning with rain ending by like 6am. So with that as the prediction I left my large black garbage bag at home (not even in the car) and headed downtown in my shorts and short sleeved shirt. As I got closer to downtown I noticed something on my windshield…uh, misty rain? Excuse me? Ah, yes, it was spitty rain. You know the kind. It was not an all out rain, but a constant drizzle of wet that is just annoying. I reassured myself that it would surely let up by race time.
I pulled into my parking space by 5:30am and waited before I had to go find a potty (again). The rain was not really letting up at all and I cursed the fact that I didn’t have my garbage bag. The garbage bag is the perfect thing to have with you before races like this: they keep the rain off of you, (and they do provide a bit of warmth, but then you can just rip them off and toss them aside when they are no longer needed. I wasn’t really cold, but again…just annoyed by the wet. I made my way to Quicken Loans arena to use the facilities and begin the hangout hour before the race started at 7am. I was thankful there was a dry place to wait. I started talking with a woman who was also by herself. She was running the marathon that day (her fourth) and she was my age. We kept each other company before the race and headed out to our corral at 6:40am. Still raining. All the runners were talking about how unexpected the weather was that morning. There was a fog around some of the buildings. We were all in the same boat, but that was little comfort as we just stood there and waited for the race to start. It felt like the longest 20 minutes of my life. Every now and then I would wipe the water off my arms and again, curse my doggone garbage bag on my kitchen table at home. Couldn’t I just will it me somehow or travel back in time to get it?! It suddenly became blurrily clear to me that a hat would have come in clutch right about now as I looked through my rain spotted glasses. My new race buddy gave me a dry tissue which I promptly stowed in my race belt for later. I planned to use my shirt as a wiper at first before it got totally soaked. The worst was just waiting at this point because even after the race started at 7am those of us “back of the packers” had to wait another 20 minutes to just get to the start line. Torture!
Finally we were at the start and I bid my new friend good luck and farewell. I kept thinking to myself how glad I was that I was only running 6.2 miles this time. She had to go 4 times as long!! Gulp. I kept all those thoughts to myself and tried to pump her up.
The run itself felt pretty good. I got into my stride and felt good. During the first couple of miles as I noticed all the thrown off shirts on the side of the road I started thinking. I could grab one of those and use it to wipe my glasses!! After I came upon my third group of discarded shirts I said “carpe shirt”, spied a cotton blue shirt that looked like it still had some dry spots and claimed it for my own. After I used it to do the deed I decided to keep it for later so around the waist it went and it became a new part of my race garb for that day. Yep. You see the wiping of the glasses was just a quick fix because 2 minutes later they were covered with rain drops again. Between the rain and then the humidity fogging them up I could really not see s**t during this race.
So much for just having fun during this race!! I mean I actually considered talking my glasses off and running without them. Ummm, those of you who know me well know that I have a bum eye AND have a really strong prescription and cannot do really anything without corrective lenses. But I had to choose the better of two evils – regular blurry vision, or blurry vision with fog and raindrops. I decided to keep them on and just go for it. I was actually beginning to feel proud of myself for dodging all the potholes which were now filled with puddles until it the inevitable happened. I splashed both full feet into a huge puddle as all the runners around me groaned “ooohhhhhh!!!!” collectively. After I uttered a few choice words I just laughed and was grateful, yet again, that I was only running 6 miles that day! I used my trusty adopted shirt about every 3 minutes or so and slogged myself to the finish. I didn’t even get a look at the clock for my time (go figure).
I grabbed a Mylar blanket, banana, and chocolate milk (oh yeah, and the medal…def looked for that) and headed to my car. Of course I got lost finding my car too, but eventually got there and drove home. In addition to my family greeting me at home in the kitchen, what else was sitting there mocking me on my kitchen table? Yep, the black garbage bag. It will forever have a permanent home in my glove compartment.
Time: 1:11:09; 11:29/per mile
Age group: 45/149
Female: 631/1294
Overall: 1230/2182