New Years Eve Resolution Run

On New Years Eve I woke up to pouring rain, thunder and a FB message from my friend/co-worker stating that he was bailing on our "race within a race." He gave me two reasons. The first being that he did not realize that the New Years Eve run was on New Years Eve, and the second being that he knew that I would rather beat him while he was in shape, rather then when he would be struggling.

Uh huh.

Truth be told, I was tempted to bail too. I have no problem racing bikes in the rain, but running is un-fun enough. So I sat at my computer for a good hour drinking coffee and trying to convince myself to bail. But I don't like to bail on races (even if it's running) and bailing on New Years Eve just seemed especially wrong.

And that's when I saw the "shuffler" go by. There's a women in our neighborhood who runs/shuffles past our house every day. I'm not sure who she is, or where she lives, but she is at it every day no matter what the conditions are. When she ran by in pouring rain my decision was sealed...I was doing the race!!!!

The race wasn't until 3:30 p.m. so I had a lot of time to kill beforehand. I actually googled "what is correct running form?" and "what to eat before a running race." I kid you not! I did not train for this race whatsoever, but I showed up to the start line filled with google knowledge :-)

Posing pre-race in my "running outfit." Little did I know what I was in for....

The good news is that it stopped raining right before our race. In fact, it was unseasonably warm for December 31st. Almost all of the snow was melted and temps were in the low 50's! That never happens in Michigan.

After registering I meandered over to the start line. Scott kept telling me that I should warm up, and I kept telling him that I didn't have enough running endurance to waste any extra steps. That's what I felt like at least. There were 745 runners lined up, and I decided I might as well go near the front half. No point in getting trampled.

And then we were off!!!!

I decided that I was going to stick with my plan of going off really fast, and let me tell you two things...

1. Big Mistake

2. My "really fast" still isn't that fast

Not only did I feel like I was going backwards, but I developed a side stitch within the first half mile. How is that even possible? It was miserable because I had to run the rest of the race feeling like someone was sticking a knife in my side. All of my "newly gained knowledge" from google went straight out the window too regarding stride/pacing. Everyone around me kept checking their watches, and I was dying to know what time it was. However, I was breathing so hard that there was no way that I could talk.

I started to pick people off towards the end of the race, and have to thank all of my fellow cyclists friends who came out to cheer us on! It was so nice hearing my name around the course!!!!

I always say this, but this time I really, really mean it. I was NEVER so happy to see a finish line in my life.

Afterwards my mom kept talking about my expression when I finished, and I think Scott managed to capture it on his iphone. I look so awful in this photo I wasn't going to post it, but it's too good not to :-) I was completely wasted after 4 miles....

So yeah, a few posts ago I foolishly stated that I would like to finish around 25 minutes. That shows how little I know about pacing. There is NO WAY I could have done that. I ended up finishing in 27:58. 1st in my age group (out of 46), 19th o/a female (out of 306) and 108th o/a (out of 745).

And I can still feel that side stitch today. No joke! Will I ever do another running race??? Sheeeesh...what do you think?

Happy 2011 everybody!!!!

PS. Don't forget spin class tomorrow night (6:30 p.m.) at the Ada Bike shop!