Unofficial time in the Run Hit Wonder Portland 2005 10K: 66:18.49.
Wow, I kinda died out there.
Not sure what happened. I showed up, I had a strategy, I got plenty of sleep last night, I had a good pre-race-day dinner (fettucine pesto e pollo from La Terrazza… mmmmmm), drank lots and lots of water, didn’t run but still exercised the past two days.
Still, I woke up with a headache, stuffy nose (took another Zyrtec for that), legs were stiff and took a while to warm up and stretch out, just felt blah.
It was funny seeing all the looks from folk wondering who all these orange-shirted people were, wandering around the city. Since there were 10,000 people entered in the race, that made for a lot of orange shirts. I must have been asked five times this morning what it was all about.
And I took a chance, and grabbed a spot near the start line. Not in the elite runner’s group, nor the 7:00-and-under pace people. I wasn’t that gutsy. But I lined up with the 8:00 pace people, and it only took me about 9 seconds to cross the start line.
I got excited and ran a little fast for the first two miles. My strategy was to aim for a 10:00 pace the first third, 9:30 pace the second third, and then hope I had enough in my for a 9:00 pace to finish. But since I ran the first mile in 9:24… uhhhh… I think I overdid it. All my miles after that were 10:00 or greater.
Maybe it was the heat. Maybe my speedwork hasn’t been enough. Maybe my allergies were kicking up. Whatever. It’s all excuses. I went out, I ran, I finished, I did what I did. On the bright side, my stretches have helped my sore heel; hardly any soreness at all. My hamstrings are a bit sore but not too bad; they finally warmed up, and I stretched well after the race. Once again, the Nike shirt for some reason really irritates my nipples. Argh. I much prefer my UnderArmor or Brooks shirts; they don’t chafe me.
I stuck around for a couple of songs from the lovely Ms. Jett, but it was hot on the field, no shade, and I didn’t have any cash to get some beer or food and didn’t feel like paying the ATM transaction fee at the park.
My reward was a delicious NW Raspberry Milkshake from Burgerville. Mmmmm.
And now that my two biggest races are past me for the year, I can go back to just running for fun, rather than training for an event. I still have another 10K I want to do, the Pints-to-Pasta in September, and I might do another 10K in August, but that’s too far away to think about just yet. Doesn’t look like I’ll be doing a half-marathon this year. Oh, well, there’s always next year.