The 20.07 race

I finished my first race of the year yesterday… a 20.07K race sponsored by the Oregon Road Runners Club. Since I kind of took it easy over the break, I was just getting my wind back in the days before. On my 4-mile run on Saturday the day before the race, I had lead legs. Uh oh… very bad sign. It would have been better for my race time if I had skipped the Sat run, but I need to stick to my schedule, no exceptions.

Sunday I awoke to heavy misty rain. Yuck. I hoped that by race time there might be a break in the weather, but the grey skies were endless. I was a little unsure of what to run in, so I brought a varied selection and figured I could change once I saw what the other runners were in. No help there… there was no consensus though I know now that the ones who wore waterproof jackets were the smart ones. The start was at a grade school so we had a gym to stretch and warm up in. NICE. When I knew it was near race time I headed out the doors… but where was the starting line? LOL… not were I was. I ran back through the gym… and saw the crowd. As soon as I jogged over to the runners the race started. Talk about cutting it close!

I thought with my conditioning I should run about 8:30 miles. I set my watch for 8:15 though. =) (Even though that MAYBE if everything went right I could be under 8) Well… things didn’t go right. For one… the huge guy I was running behind and using to block the wind pulled over to let me by. Rats. Would it have been bad form to ask him to just run a little faster? I could be his cheerleader… ‘come on now… you can do it… keep strong… pick it up a little… drive hard…’ but no. Also… I gained 10 pounds of water weight once all my cloths soaked. Wind + Rain + a little out of shape equaled 8:16 miles. Not too shabby so close after the New Year. Still estimates to the magical bit-under-4-hour marathon pace I am shooting for. Boston seems impossible at 7:37 for me. Ah well… one step at a time. I read that only the top 1-2% of marathon finishers qualify for Boston. As my son would say, ‘wholly crud!’ I haven’t even finished one yet… I am worse than last!