I think I mostly keep a blog so that I have somewhere to vent during my pre-race freakout.
Vent 1. It is going to be very cold tomorrow morning. Until just a couple of weeks ago, I could hardly run at all during daylight hours because it was so hot. The temp at gun time is supposed to be 31 degrees. Fahrenheit. I have spent the last 30 minutes in a made scramble around the house trying to find a toque and some gloves. And yes, I'm having a real crisis about the layering issue. Don't get me started.
Vent 2. The t-shirt. It sucks, and they didn't have my size. This race was NOT CHEAP and I'm stuck with an ugly, too-large shirt. Grumble grumble. Maybe I'll wear it as my top layer and shed it at the start. Heh.
Vent 3. Did I mention this race was NOT CHEAP? And in addition to the shirt sucking, the packet also sucked. A bunch of coupons for stuff I don't care about, and two samples of Wheaties. I am not kidding. Not even a course map or information sheet. And, their website sucks, is confusing, and keeps opening up new browser windows.
Vent 4. It's a for-profit race. I don't run very many of these - they're a relatively new addition to the running scene here. I like having more options, I do. But give me a down home CTC race any day, where all comers are welcome, you get a welcome dose of information overload, the registration fee is reasonable, the website is spartan but functional, and a worthy charity gets the money.
Vent 5. I keep track of times and PRs for all my races on a spreadsheet, and for whatever reason, I only have 1 entry for the 10K distance, and I KNOW I've run it at least twice, and possibly three times. This is pissing me off, because I don't know what my PR is.
I had a couple of short but speedy runs this week, so I'm hoping that I blaze tomorrow. I'm not super familiar with the course, but I know there's one killer hill in my old neighborhood. I'm hoping for a PR, but between the cold and the big hill, I think that's a stretch goal for me tomorrow. And, see Vent 5, I'm not even sure what that PR might be. Argh.
So, I got my freak on, looks like I should be in good shape for tomorrow.
2 comments:
I'm running tomorrow too (#28). At this point, I'm planning to wear a short sleeve tech t-shirt (not the race shirt) over a long sleeve one, plus a fleece vest. It's an odd combo, but it works for me.
I'm very frustrated with the race organizers because at least one of my running/walking friends called the store and was basically told that this is a runners-only race. I asked one of the store owners and was not given a straight answer. I am a very slow runner and, since there apparently won't be any walkers tomorrow, am worried that I'll be the last person in. Between this, the lack of charitable aspect, and the overall cost of the race, I'm not sure if I'll run any more races organized by this running shop.
Oh, about the race course: I've walked, biked, and run it a few times in the past two weeks, so I'm familiar with it. The first 3.5 miles are easy -- mostly flat or downhill, with one moderate hill on East Market. After the turn-off from the trail by the river, there's a short steep uphill to River Road, which segues into a long uphill of about 8-10%, then a short flat-ish stretch, then a short steep uphill of 10-12%. After that, it's pretty easy all the way down Locust. The ending stretch at Market will be a bit uphill, but not too bad.
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