Pre-race jitters

It's 36 hours to race start.

Oy. I am so nervous it's not funny. Will the training pay off? Will the fact that I have not run at all this week erase all the hard work I've done? Will the purple wig stay on my head during the race? What if I pass out on the course?

I have to admit, this week has been hard, and it's been a bad week to let all my race discipline fly out the window. We're in a bit of a state of flux at our house - we're packing up for a move on June 15th, my fiance has been in China for the past 2 weeks (he just got home tonight), and his sister comes for a visit this Saturday. In fact, her plane touches down at Newark right around the time of the starting gun for the Freihofers. So I've been running a little ragged, trying to get two houses in order, sorting, boxing, and working my regular 8 hour day on top of that.

So race day will dawn with me not having run for a week. My fiance, who was the most tremendous coach and support during last year's race, will be picking up his sister from the airport. I think my soon-to-be stepson will be with me, but I might be doing this alone. That's ok, because I'll have my LLS teammates there.

I'd like to wax lyrical about how wonderful this whole experience has been for me, because it truly has been a life-changing process, but I think that's a blog better left to be written on a post-race euphoric high.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to bite my fingernails a little bit and try to get a really good night's sleep on Friday!

Test Run

38:12

Now I know how fast I can run the Freihofer's, under conditions of extreme heat, no water and utter confusion!

Tonight was the GHI 5K Corporate Challenge downtown at the Empire State Plaza, and my company fielded a 21 member team. The course is roughly the same as the Freihofer's, so I signed up to run, thinking it would be a good test for the Big Day. I've been getting excited about this race all week, and it certainly didn't disappoint, just not in the ways I expected!

First things first - it's a REALLY hot day today in Albany! It's 9pm, and the temp is still at 81 degrees. I'm going to hazard a guess that at race time, we were still in the high 80's. There was a stiff breeze, so that helped a lot, and about 60% of the course was shaded, so that also mitigated the heat a bit.

4:30pm rolled around. I shut down my computer. Race singlet and skort: donned. Wrist stopwatch: strapped on. Double pair of socks and sneaks: shod. Hair: scraped back off my forehead. iPhone: set to airplane mode.

I made my way down to the Plaza, toward what I thought was the pre-arranged rendezvous for our team. Strange - there seemed to be a line of massage tables where Steve (our team captain) told us to meet. Okay ~shrug~.

I got a massage. And waited.

When 5:45pm rolled around and I still didn't see Steve, I got a little panicky. Steve had my race number. They won't let me run without a race bib. Finally, after some frantic paging, I got to the correct rendezvous, and everything was set. I lined up according to my anticipated race time, and waited for the race to begin.

BANG! We're off! I passed by the grandstand where Mayor Jennings was standing, reaching down to high five the runners streaming by. I screamed "JERRY!! GIVE ME SOME SUGAR!" in my loudest, opera diva voice, and wouldn't you know it, our perma-tanned Mayor fist bumped me and yelled back "go go GO!"

That was the highlight of the race. It was all downhill from there.

Perhaps I was spoiled by how efficiently and professionally last year's Freihofer's was run, and maybe the fact that this was by far the largest crowd (7700 people!) I've ever run with have colored my opinion, but MAN! Not a well organized race. Not. at. all.

There were no distance markers (that I could see), other than the 1km placard at the entrance to Washington Park. That was accompanied by a time marker, but those were the last official waypoints I saw for the rest of the race, save the finish line. Maybe they were off the to the side of the course, low to the ground, but how are you supposed to see that when you are racing by in a rugby scrum of people? Lift them up high, race peeps!

Worst of all - THERE WAS NO WATER AT THE FIRST WATER CHECK. I was amazed. I was running about a 12 minute mile, and sure, there were lots of runners ahead of me, but there were TONS of people behind me. To run out of water before more than half of your runners has gone by is not cool. And there were no volunteers there either! None! They had abandoned ship! Runners were pawing through boxes of water, looking for full containers! It was like feeding time at the gulag.

There was a second water check that was better staffed about a mile before the finish, but by then, my throat had turned into the Sahara.

Those are the negatives of the race. There were positives. I wanted to get the negatives out the way so that I could finish this post on a high note!

I've already told you about my brush with Rich Corinthian Leather fame (well, his face does look like the seat of a Buick, doesn't it?). I also ran into a friend I haven't seen since grad school! She was on our team, and I had no idea she worked at my company until now. It was so wonderful catching up with her!

It was also wonderful to be in such a supportive atmosphere, with so many people cheering you on! The course passes through the intersection of Lark St. and Madison Ave, and there are two popular bars across the street from each other, the Lionheart and the Lark Tavern. Lots of the patrons had come out onto the sidewalk en masse, and offered vociferous support, beer pints in hand. It was hilarious!

All in all - it was a good night. The heat didn't affect me as much as I thought it would. I shaved 5 minutes off my 5K time from last year's Freihofer. And I know now (after the fact, unfortunately) to bring something for the chafing.

What? TMI?

Thanks for reading! 8 more days till the BIG DAY!! Let's see if I can get my time down to 37 minutes!

Catch up

I'd blame technical difficulties on the lack of posts from last week (my Mac has been freezing up at really inopportune moments), but that doesn't really excuse it, since I can post from my iPhone. But trust me! I've still been running!

Last Wednesday's run was very similar to Monday's - same course in my neighborhood, and I finished in the same time, which was a little bit disappointing, but I'll take it. I could swear there was headwind......

Confession time - I biffed Friday night's run. Didn't do it. Yes, I feel bad. But....

Monday night's run was great! Same course, better time! I'm now doing 2.41 miles in 30 minutes! Improvement!

Today's run was the same time, same distance.

Tomorrow is the GHI Workforce Challenge. I'm running it with 15 other members of my company, as sort of a test of the Freihofer course. It's the same exact course, only backwards. The race starts at 6:25pm. Wish me luck!

In other news: my race day singlet came!!

And Now For Something Completely Different

It had to come some time. We all knew there was a time when I would have to throw off the shackles of the treadmill (and singlehandedly ameliorate the Y's equipment budget for next year) and get out on the actual asphalt and pound the pavement.

Tonight was the night!

Goodbye screaming treadmill! I bid the machine mounted TV adieu. Sayonara, you wacky "Mythbusters" on Discovery Channel! Farewell, Geico gecko commercials!

Tonight was the night I tested myself on the road. I plotted out a 3.1 mile course in my neighborhood! It had hills! I swiped my fiance's stopwatch, loaded up my iPod with a playlist and set out! This was a chance to test a whole lot of theories and circumstances.

Things I learned on my run:
1) Don't look too far into the distance. Look down at the ground, slightly ahead. Looking far ahead will make you dizzy.
2) Cinching the iPod armband as tight as a tourniquet is slightly counter-productive.
3) Sometimes bugs will fly into your mouth...
4) ...It's ok to spit if you're running for charity.
5) songs that work to keep my pace up:
- "Ready Set Go" Ben Gidsjoy
- "The Theme" Digby Jones Orchestra
- " Do Your Thing" Basement Jaxx
- "Charmed By a Rose" Lord Vanger- Operatica
6) songs that just annoyed the heck out of me:
- "Where's Your Head At" Basement Jaxx
- "Technologic" Daft Punk

So tonight was a success! I clocked in at roughly the same pace as the last treadmill run, which really surprised me, since my new course has hills.

Stats:
total time: 30:00
total distance: 2.38 miles

PS - many apologies for biffing last Friday's run. Between Mom's birthday, the Red Dress Run ,a late concert Saturday, and Mother's Day Sunday, things got hectic.

Thinning the Herd

It was only a matter of time. Remember when I told you that I have killed 2 exercise machines at the Y where I train? Add another notch to my wicking shirt. I took a treadmill out tonight!

It must be instinct, or else my hunting skills are as reflexive as a dry heave whenever Rachael Ray comes on TV, but I didn't set out to kill tonight. I climbed on the victim, set my workout stats, plugged in my earphones and within a minute of starting, felt a tap on my shoulder.

Wellness Director: [something I can't make out because I still have my earphones in]
(I remove my earphones)(I hear an inhuman screeching sound)
Me: I'm sorry what did you say?
Wellness Director: I need you to step off the machine, ma'am.
(I realize the screaming is coming from my machine)
Me: what's my kill tally now?
Wellness Director: three

Up went the "out of order" sign, and I moved to another machine. Where I clocked another personal best!

You might think that the Y would raise my rates with the number of machines I've demolished there, but I have talked them around to my way of thinking. I'm doing them a favor. I'm culling the herd. I'm removing the weak and inferior machines from the exercise pool.

It's a thankless job. Really.

Stats:
total time: 30:00
total distance: 2.37 miles.

That's a 12:39/mile pace. If I run this fast (and I used the term "fast" lightly) I'll complete the course in 39:12, which is 4 minutes faster than I ran it last year. I have a feeling I'll shave some more time off, but if I can get it done anywhere between 35:00 and 38:00, I'll be happy!