Blowing The Cobwebs Off My Tennis Shoes

So today went as follows: woke up at five thirty, refused to get out of bed until six thirty, stressed stressed stressed, made a cup of tea, did some yoga, took a brief shower, put on some running gear, stressed stressed stressed, waited for my boss to pick me up. At eight thirty on the money, we made our way down to the 5k.

I had to chug some Pepto-Bismol before my boss arrived, followed by some water (hydration is key), because I was super anxious. It wasn't, "Oh, I am going on a light jog with Jen" but more of a "What the f*, I am going to a competitive race in the pouring rain WITH MY BOSS." In this case, only the strong survive.

When I popped in the car, I pretended to be happy to see her even though I secretly wished she had cancelled. We talked about throwing the entire thing off and just going to breakfast but we were already dressed so we made the effort. Upon arrival to the Lehigh Valley Parkway, the scene was chipper despite the rain. There were balloons (knocked over by the wind), pink shirts everywhere (hidden by ponchos), and a festive strech session (led by an overweight man). We made use of the toliets before starting to run our freezing toes off but I wasn't sure what was rain water and what was human water... Nonetheless, the coffers were empty, we lined up, the gun sounded, and out feet hit the pavement.... Errr... Mud.

The route was similar the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon but a little crueler. Right at the end of the first mile, there were two MASSIVE hills. The first mile is always the hardest for me with my body protesting the sudden movement. Objects at rest, for about twenty six years, like to stay at rest. The onset of the hills hurt. I admit, I had to walk at the top but once I hit the peak, I began to run again.

A similar thing happened at mile two but the hill was less steep so I managed to walk a little less and ran the rest of the way. Overall, I think I walked less than a quarter of a mile, which is pretty good considering that I haven't ran seriously since visiting Costa Rica in July. It's amazing what we can put our bodies through. Three months of drinking, occasionally smoking, and lots pizza still equates to an ok runner.

When we crossed the finished line, they yelled the time out to us. I heard 25 minutes, Jen heard 45, turns out we finished at 39 minutes. That's a 12.6 mile which I really don't mind since it was in the rain, uphill, both ways.

As soon as we got out of the herd of people that crowded around the end of the race, Jen looked to me and said, "Let's go." We did make an effort to pick up a free items, like water and a bagel, but beyond that, we had to bounce. Jen then took me out for a Mimosa breakfast. Nice.