I went into Saturday apprehensive but confident. I had three goals in mind: a time of 26 minutes, finishing in the top 1/3 overall, and finishing in the top 10 for over-50 runners.
Goals suck.
I failed magnificently on all three counts. Why? I wasn't prepared for the kind of weather we encountered on Saturday. This wasn't mid-October weather. This was early-December weather. It was 41 degrees and raining. I got about a quarter mile into the race and realized that I was having an exercise-triggered asthma attack, something I almost never experience, but something that, had I been thinking, I would have planned for, since cold damp air is a major factor in exercise-triggered asthma. Because I was operating with about 1/2 capacity lungs, I never had a prayer. I actually had to stop and WALK about 6 or 7 times during the course of the race (oh the humiliation!).
I ended up with a time of 32:17 -- 3 minutes slower than last year. I finished approximately 75th out of 181 (nice turnout! -- there were only about 75 runners total last year). And it was a fast field, too -- the winning time was 16:43!
Okay, so I learned some important things for next year.
- Running outside is WAAAAY harder than running on a treadmill, no matter how hard you think you're pushing yourself. I need to have at least 2-3 outdoor runs prior to the race.
- Be prepared! Have an inhaler handy, especially in cold weather.
- Don't set grandiose goals on your very public blog. ;)
One last thing, a shout out to Vulture's mother, a breast cancer survivor. Your little boy was thinking about you while on the course (that is, when he wasn't thinking about how much it sucks to have 1/2 lung capacity). Stay well.
