October 27, 2013
Time: 56:19, Pace: 9:04, Rank: 22 out of 65, W30-39
This was my third time running this race. I was getting over a cold I had from the kids and had been taking cold eeze and sleeping with a humidifier. Also hadn’t been sleeping well. The night before I had chinese stir fry and rice and some kimchi - skip the spicy food the next time!
After a pretty restless night of sleep (standard for me) I woke up at 6am and took a shower. Then had black tea w/soy milk and oatmeal w/soy milk and half english muffin w/almond butter and honey. Then drank some emergen-c which I think was a mistake - the carbonation and vitamins made me feel ill throughout the race.
Got to the starting line about 15 minutes beforehand, it was cold - maybe 48 degrees - and I kept thinking my short sleeve wouldn’t be enough - but it ended up being fine and I’m glad I wore what I did. Jogged around a bit with Jordan for a light warmup.
My first mile was slow , around 10:30. Sped up a bit when we reached the first hill and really powered up it. About halfway around, I started getting a bad cramp in my side because my posture was bad. Kept going at about 9:45 pace but was having problems running downhill which really hurt my side. I only stopped at one water break and just rinsed my mouth.
I tried to power up another steep hill and felt like I was going to faint - I could feel all the blood had drained down to my legs. A lot of people started passing me at this point, including all the people I had passed going up the hill initially. I briefly felt I wouldn’t finish.
Coming out of the reservoir, I picked up the pace a lot and really powered it out the last mile and passed 20 people, counting them in my head mentally as I did. Seeing Jordan and Keira at the last half mile really got me going and I sprinted to the finish.