Sunday, November 22, 2009

I knew when I saw the look in her eyes that I'd be doing this race. "Look, dear, a 30k trail race in Tampa..."

I wonder sometimes if she loves me as a husband but secretly hates me as an athlete so she picks out the meanest and cruelest races for me to run. No worries. I'll show her because secretly I LOVE these races.

4:30am wake up. Caffeine. Long ride. Pay my 55 bucks. #2... twice. Ready, set, go.

It took about 9.58 seconds for 2 super fast looking dudes to be just gone. One I knew was doing the marathon and the other was in the 30k with me. That's when I learned that I'd be finishing 2nd today.

The end of the winning streak. Poop. Snapped at 3.

It took me before we got off the road and onto the trail to figure out that I had to pee. I stopped and peed. I then passed all that had passed me while I was relieving myself and was in 3rd place. (or 2nd if you will)

I ran 98% of the rest of the race alone.

Mile after mile I ran. I was running strong but suffering. I was having a hard time breathing but the speed was there and the legs were good. I settled in.

Head and chest up. Arms down. Stride long. I was running 6:15-6:30 miles for a long time.

For 40 minutes I didn't see a single sole. no fans. No family. no officials. No other runners. The only aid station that i saw had inadvertently been left with no humans. I helped myself.

I liked it. I was having a good day and liking the run. Really thought I was going to fly to the finish and run sub 2 hours. Then the left turn from hell.

Headwind.

OK, got through the headwind, right turn... SAND. Shit THAT sucked. It was a half mile or so and there was just no place to go. I was now 12 miles into an 18.6 mile race and my mojo was gone. I would have to suffer to the finish.

I went through the half marathon (just after the sand debacle) in just under 1:29. That's decent. To bad i was now jogging and no longer running.

Luckily a mile or so of road kept me from completely falling apart.

Back on the trail with 3 miles to go. God this SUCKS.

All of a sudden I felt a tap on the back. (He probably would have tapped me on the shoulder but this cat was SHORT) Out of nowhere was the leader of the marathon. He was one of the two fast dudes that darted out at the start. His course was almost the same as mine except that he had to run a couple of extra loops. He was well ahead of me and passing me at the same time. Yeah, weird.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. He passes me and I ran with him. Low and behold my utter slowness and mediocrity were not real they were simply me being a (forgive me french) pussy. I ran with him back at 6:15 pace for almost a mile.

He went strait to do another 9 miles (god help the poor soul) and i turned left to.... SHIT!! run through the sand again.

I did and I finished.

2:07:53. Not a bad day considering. I never bonked and I ran hard most of the way. I finished 2nd overall and only lost by 16 minutes. 3rd place was like 7 minutes behind. I guess I wasn't in danger of being caught.

I hiked around for an hour or so doing some geocaching while I waited for the awards.... which was pointless cause I got nothing.

Oh well. I good day and a great training race. Next it's a barn-burner 5k in Orlando on Thankgiving where I am going to run under 16:15. Till then... get you ass out the door for a run!!