Rain drops keep falling on my head

So it has been raining pretty much all week long.  I was stalking my half marathon and saw that there was a 50% chance of no rain..now if you want to be a pessimist there was also a 50% chance of rain, but I was trying to think positively! Turned out the weather didn't like all of my positive thoughts!

I decided last night that I would wear my capris and a short sleeve shirt.  Turns out I couldn't find my capris this morning (at least not the ones I wanted) and I had to put the fan on while I slept so I was pretty sure that I should wear shorts.  I took the dog out and it was a light drizzle, 64 degrees out..yeah definite shorts weather.

As I drove to the half I noticed that the temps were falling a bit.  When I pulled in to the parking lot, it was raining a bit more than a drizzle.  Now I am questioning my outfit.  I used the bathroom and then headed back to my car since I had some time.  Megan texted me that she was here and didn't want to leave her car and she was questioning her outfit selection as well.  Megan was running the 5K and wearing a tank.  Yeah it is starting to rain a bit harder here as apposed to where we drove from.  I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't dress for the weather.

As we were standing around under an overhang waiting for the race to start we saw Red Man!  I love this guy.  He always wears his red tank and red shorts.  He also usually wins his age group since many times he is the only one in the 80 plus category.  He brightened my morning up a bit.

This is not from today.  If it was everyone would look cold and wet.

Finally the half marathoners lined up and we were off.  It wasn't too long before I knew I was going to hate this race.  I do not like running in rain.  I do not like running in wet shoes.  Soon I would have to get over it. When we started out I tried to miss the big puddles trying to hold off the wet shoes and socks for as long as possible. The rain picked up a few miles in so I knew that it was looking like it was going to be a long 13.1 miles.  There was no saving the shoes and socks.

I was feeling pretty good for most of the run.  I was trying to pick up some time on the down hill parts and settle in to a slow climb up the hills.  I also stopped dodging puddles.  My shoes and socks were sloshing around so might as well just run straight through the stupid puddles.  My clothes were soaking wet.  I must have been running with an extra 5 pounds of water being soaked up by my shorts and shirt..oh and socks, can't forget my extra absorbent socks!  I was hating life.  I did notice that my thighs were not rubbing together because they were so wet that there was no possibility of chafing there.  My shorts were quickly looking like a wet diaper.  Yeah I was regretting the no capri choice.  At least I thought ahead to wear a black shirt so it wouldn't end up being a wet t'shirt contest!  No white shirts today!  Why didn't I look harder for my favorite pair of capris??  Oh well nothing I could do now except finish this awful race.

I noticed that at mile 10 I was at a PR for my 10 mile time.  At least I think I was.  The rain was messing with my garmin so I locked it on regular time.  It wouldn't go to the pace screen so every mile (for the most part) it would then pop up with my mile time.  So most of the time I was pretty much guessing my times.  I know that I was holding a pretty good pace for me.  So I was feeling happy about my time.  Once again the last three miles sucked.  It was a lot of up hill.  Who does that??  Nobody wants to see a hill at mile 11!!  I tried to use the downhills to pick up time because I know the up was not going to be pretty.  I headed for the finish, which was around a track.  I was hoping for a PR but I really slowed down a lot during the last few miles.  I was never so happy to see a finish line in all of my life.  When I crossed Megan asked if I wanted food.  I was only interested if they had hot chocolate.  They didn't so I didn't need food.  My legs were so cold for that last 4 miles.  I headed to my car to change into some drier clothes.  I ended up wringing out my socks before putting them in my car.  I don't think I have ever been that wet before!  Note to self I still hate running in rain.

Once again my Army 10 miler hat comes in handy!  I really should buy a running  hat.

Megan and I headed off for our traditional brunch after a race.  I enjoy some french toast..I know shocker!

I came home and checked my time and lo and behold I now have a new PR!!  I shaved 3 mins off of my half marathon time.  Maybe I need to start running more races in the rain.

Its like Grease Lightening....

Monday for Memorial Day I ran 8 miles!  It was hot and humid..just the weather I love to run in (insert sarcasm!)  I went running with Becky and around 5 miles or so I knew I was running out of water.  Which didn't worry me because the first part of our run we passed a few people washing their cars and kids watering the garden.  So I figured that I could just ask some nice people to fill up my water bottle.  I am a drinker when I run.  I think it is because I am a crazy sweater too.  So as luck would have it nobody was out watering gardens or washing cars when I wanted water!  Go figure!  Finally towards the end of our run (we had maybe a bit more than a mile to go) I saw a wonderful family washing their car.  So we asked for a fill up.  The man asked his wife not to turn off the hose so we could fill up.  He was our water angel!  He told us that he saw us a while ago running, were we running the entire time?  Why yes we were!  So we thanked them for some water and we were off.  Glad I got out there and ran some miles before next weeks half marathon.  I am going to try and get in a long run on Sunday or Monday depending on my schedule.

Tuesday was run club.  We were supposed to have some storms move through, but my house looked nice and clear.  So I figured no problem with running at run club.  It was a bit sticky outside, but nothing too horrible.  As I was driving up the sky was not looking great.  I saw some lightening.  I knew I wasn't running at run club.  I do not run with lightening.  Rain never killed anyone, but lightening can do some damage.  I got to the bar that we start from and saw some lightening and heard some thunder.  Yep no running for me!  My friend KP was trying to convince me to run.  He said he would run with me and since he is taller the lightening would strike him and not me.  Yeah I'm not falling for that one!

I wouldn't even run with lightening if I was in Paris!  I don't run with lightening!

So everyone went out for their run and I was left with Bill and Liana at the table waiting for runners to return.  While we are sitting there chatting, Bill points us to the window.  Torrential Downpours!  Yep I would say that I made the right decision!  When people came back they were all looking like drowned rats!  So glad I was dry!

What are your "I'm not running in that" weather limits?

Rock n Roll USA and a PR

Thursday night Megan and I headed over to pick up our race packet.  You know you've been to a lot of race expos when all you walk away with is a green head band.

We did get to squeeze in a run through the finish line in flats!  

Saturday morning I got up at 5 and by 5:35 we were on the road heading towards our first half  marathon of the year.  We wanted to meet up with some half fanatics for a picture, but the metro ended up running really slow and we missed it.  So after we got off the metro we dropped  off our bags at the correct school bus.  Which turned out to be a great idea, because while we were standing in the portapotty line we saw the buses start to drive off..and then I saw quite a few people running the race with their bag on their backs.  How uncomfortable would that be to run with a bag on your back for 13.1 miles. 

After bag check we headed over to the long portapotty lines.  We thought we picked a good line, but our line was slow.   Like it took 1 hour to get up front!  Yeah we missed the start of the race.  I figured I was ok since my corral was 31.  Megan ended up just jumping in on corral 30 and taking off because her corral already left.  But at least we didn't have to stop on course!  

I didn't have my Garmin with me. It had a seizure that morning and claimed it wasn't charged so I was running Garmin free.  So I was trying to figure out my time based off of the clocks on course.  I think I was running a pretty steady 11 min. mile until mile 6.  Which is good for me.  Normally I am either all over the place or I start with a time and just steadily get slower.  I was feeling great running.  It is amazing how great a race can feel when you actually run and train before the actual race!  Well anyway, mile six turned into a mountain straight up towards the National Zoo.  Ugh!  I ran up half of it and then walked because I didn't want to spend all of my energy half way through the race.  Once at the top it was pretty flat and I started running again.  Some of the water stops looked vacant.  Not a lot of volunteers at many of the water stops.  Lucky for me I had my handheld so I didn't stop at too many water stops.  When I did stop, I just filled my bottle from the water barrels.  I felt good for most of the race.  That last 5K sucked though.  For some reason I just hate the last 5K of a race.  Really from mile 11 on I was ready for the race to be done.  At one point I thought I could walk faster than what I was running..but I was still running!  

When I was heading towards the finish line I was thinking that I just might have finished with a PR (if my math was correct)  Although I wasn't really sure because the first clock I saw was at mile 1 so I was doing all of my math off of that first clock.  But I was really happy with my time.

As I cross the finish, Gary from Run Club was there.  We always joke that he has teacher radar, and yep his radar must still be working!  Odd that no matter how large the race we usually end up running into Gary!  We grabbed some food and water and got some finisher photos and then headed to the meeting spot where I was going to meet up with Megan.  Well Megan wasn't there because the bag pickup was a mess.  Long lines, slow bag pickup didn't make for happy runners at all.  

The race weather was perfect!  I would like to think it didn't rain because I wore my hat.  (I'm not a huge fan of hats, but I thought I would want one if it was going to rain) It was overcast without a bunch of wind.  Maybe that helped me knock off 4 minutes from my last PR!  I'm slowly chipping away at my half marathon time.  Now that we finished it was time to celebrate with some french toast.

Afterwards I headed home to shower and take a nap.  But before that I checked the mail and look what came...

Yeah my Bic Bands came! lol..  well maybe I will have some for the next race!  

Next up is the Cherry Blossom 10 miler.

Dear DC

Dear DC,
I'm not sure if you are aware that there is a race happening on Saturday.  Thousands of people will be running your streets and admiring the beautiful views of the city.  Please be kind to those runners.

Today it is super windy.  People do not really enjoy running in the wind so please if you can blow all of your wind around today and take a break on Saturday you would make a lot of runners very happy.  Also I saw this weather report today...

Now the weathermen have been wrong more than they have been right this year.  Please let this be one of those times when they predicted incorrectly!  I do not want to run my first rain race!  I promise that the next time it is raining (but not torrential downpours..I'm not crazy) I will put my shoes on and run outside.  If you must rain on Saturday, please make it during the evening or even during the afternoon.  I do like the 57 degrees, thank you if that happens.  

Just in case I may bring an entire change of clothes for french toast after the race.  I know this may sound like I'm asking a lot..but please remember that I am not asking just for me, but thousand of other runners too!  

Sincerely,

Running Librarian

aches and pains..

Boot camp happened on Monday..I am finally able to walk and not feel my abs as I bend over.  I worked muscles that I just didn't know that I had!  I also found out that I hate planks..doesn't matter if I am planking to the side, with one arm or basic, I hate them!  All of my hate can only mean one thing..I guess I need to keep up with boot camp!  I will say it is always fun to work out with a group of friends, so that makes all of the sweating and aches worth it.  Hopefully it will pay off with my running too! Bonus!

Made it to run club on Tuesday!  It was  great running weather (except for the drizzly/sleet that was falling from the sky)  But really once you start running, it didn't bother me too much.   I wasn't sure how I was going to feel during the run, considering that my inner thighs wanted me to just stay on the couch and watch Young and the Restless all day (too bad I had work..sorry inner thighs..we have to make some money today.)  But just as I thought, the first few steps were a bit painful, but once the muscles warmed up I forgot all about my boot camp pains.  I also thought Becky would want to turn around at the 5K point (she wasn't looking forward to the drizzly run) but she didn't even mention it.  That could be that Jen joined up with us and we were just chatting it up.  Then coming back, our friend Ryan showed up and ran with Becky while Jen and I ran in front of them.  Ryan's legs are super long, I felt like he was pushing Jen and I during the last part of the run (which I guess is good, since I was wanting to walk or let him and Becky go around us) But I hung in there.

And look what was waiting for us at the end of the run:

 We brought some cupcakes for our friend KP's birthday.  Since the first time we met him was over someone else's birthday cupcakes..  Well the lesson we learned is that if you are bringing birthday cupcakes, you should make sure the person is coming.. oops.  Well we sent KP a picture (which didn't taste nearly as good as the cupcakes)  

Always nice hanging out at run club!  Chatting and enjoying some beer.  Smaller crowd this week because of the weather, but still great seeing everyone.

Now off to have a run up some hills..ugh...