August 22, 2010....Race to The Taste

Us, before the run

My "I'm-a-super-stretcher" face

Chris's "I'm-seriously-stretching, back-off" look

WE GOT OUR SITTER BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris picked up our sitter at 6:30, and we were out the door by 7.....we didn't need to leave very early at all....registration was from 7:30 - 8:45.....BUUUUuuuUUUUt we wanted to be gone before the kids woke up, it's easier on us, on the kids, and on our poor sitter.

We had oodles of time before the race, so we decided to hit WalMart and get mouthwash (which we forgot when we were there for our normal grocery shopping) And, since we were headed to WalMart, I decided to stop at the gas station for a cappucino....they always give me an upset stomach, but I knew I wouldn't have to make my pit stop in a porta-potty, so we capp'ed it up. I forgot that the dumb capp was gonna be too hat to drink till we were actually AT w/m...so, I had to guzzle it in the parking lot...I wanted to be sure I had appropriate facilities, should I need them.

We putzed around WalMart for a while, which we never get to do....something about 4 screaming kids, and we never manage to do our major shopping when it does NOT conflict with lunch/dinner, so the 4 said screaming kids are hungry on top of being bored with shopping.....so, we took advantage of our 15 minute trip to W/M :-) Suddenly, the urge to use the bathroom hit me, and I headed off to rid my body of the cappucino.....only, I was having some...uh.....problems. Yup, I'm one of those nerds who can pretty much only *use* the bathroom at home......bummer. I decide that if it must be, I'll take care of it at the race.

So, we leave WalMart and head over to the Expo center. We found parking and the registration barn with ease, but no matter where we look, we can NOT find a course map. We had looked online Saturday night, but couldn't find one anywhere either...so, we were pretty concerned that we might be doing 5 mile laps INSIDE the fairgrounds :-/ EEEEeeeeEEEEK!!!!! After MANY bathroom attempts (and little success for either Chris or me) we walked around the concourse of the fairgrounds. Eventually, we came upon some runners who, did, in fact, know that the race was NOT inside the fairgrounds, and that it would start over there ----->

OK....so, we mosy-ed over 'there' to check it out (yup, a starting line) then spent the next 15-20 minutes walking around. Finally, we decide to do one last bathroom stop, and head over to the start line. i still had an upset stomach, and, I was nervous about the race (I quit being nervous about races many moons ago, but this one had me nervous???) We had about 8 minutes before the race, so we headed to our bathrooms. i got dome right away, and walked out to hear the announcer blabbering about the course.......where.is.chris? Announcer now talking about the finish, something about a field....something about traffic and Porter County Sherriffs.....where.is.chris? FINALLY....C comes out of the bathroom, and we got a nice warm up jog in by flying to the start line. We lined up, and about 1.5 minutes later, we were off.

Chris took off pretty much right away...I have been battling this stupid extra 10 pounds, and my knee is my automatic sensor -- it does NOT like the extra weight, and it tells me this by hurting. So, I decided to take this race cautiously, but to try to come in under 48 flat. At about the 1 mile mark, a strange thing happens to me....my left shin feels like someone is squeeeeeeeezing it really hard. I've NEVER had shin pain, and have no idea what to do with it...so, I walk for about 15-18 seconds, then resume running. Shortly before the 2, my shin pain returns....I realize I have 2 choices: A) run every mile, followed by 20-30 seconds of walking, or B) just suck it up and walk for OVER 2 minutes (the golden 20/2 rule), so I feel like a nerd and walk for 2 minutes, I WALKED across the 2 mile mark.......weird. When I resumed running, all was right in the shin world! We left the fairgrounds after .48 miles IN the fairgrounds, then headed east about 1 mile till we hit a subdivision, ran around the exterior of this subdivision (about 1.25 miles) then headed back to fairgrounds, where we wound up running 75% of the way around the outside of the fairgrounds, on a gravel service road, before dipping back INTO the fairgrounds where we ran on the grass for a little ways before using concourse roads to weave our way back to the finish. Around the 4 mile mark, I started to realize I could finish this beast inside of 48 (which is a REALLY crummy time for me!!!!) So, I begin to form a plan...I am gonna pass her first, then him, then ease up a little before passing her...then, it's on for a good, strong, finish. As i get to what i think is the last little road before the finish -- I see my grunting, sweaty hubby!! He's already finished, of course, and I am screaming at him to see what his time is....he tells me "In the 43!" .suck. I tell him I REALLY wanna come in under 48, then ....BLAM. the little road we ran on before has become longer!! I have about .2 miles further to go than I thought.... ERGH! So, I haul a$$ to get there before the 48 shows up, and I crossed at 48:00 on their time clock AND my Garmin (this is one of those runs where "official results vary" :-/)

So, I should be happy for hitting my goal, right?!?!? Wrong. I'm mad and disappointed b/c I should be 10 pounds lighter and running a 5 mile race in the 46:45-47:30 range.....without trying this hard.

So, as of today (the race was yesterday) I have started the end-all, be-all journal to record my diet AND activity, I am also gonna try to focus more on cardio DVD workouts and actual running, *NOT* so much treadmilling. We have back-to-back 5 mile runs on Sep 11-12, so my goal is to be about 4 pounds lighter and to come in under 47:30 for at least on of them.

Official results:

Chris:

43:27 ~ finish

8:41 ~ average mile time

4th out of 8 30-34 male

73rd out of 166 runners

Julie:

48:05 ~ finish

9:37 ~ average mile

8th out of 10 female 30-34

97th out of 166 runners

Rotary Ramble 5K Demotte, IN

Cameron with his ribbon!

Justin with his ribbon :-)

Claire and her ribbon

Kids before the run

Mommy and Daddy after our run!

Let me just start this post off by saying that we will never run this race again.

That being said.....

This was a VERY local race for us, the only one within 15 minutes of our back door, and it had a pee-wee run for the kids (free of charge) after the 5K. Registration was from 6:30-7:45, race began at 8am. We got there about 7:25, my mom met us there to watch the kids while we ran. After Chris got our packets, we went to register the kids for their race, which was located at the finish line, so mom and the kids could see where they would need to meet us at. The kids were so excited to get bibs to pin on their shirts!!!! (and, kudos to them, ALL the kids were #1!!!) Then, we made our way back to the start area, Justin needed to use the bathroom, so I took him in for that (and for me to pee too) and as I came out of the school, they were urging runners to line up. Chris and I said a quick goodbye to the kids, and headed over to the start line. There were a lot, and I mean, A LOT of young kids there....the 13-17 year old cross country kids, I am betting at least 1/2 the race was in high school. As we were listening to the endless "rules" from the PA announcer (who, by the way, knows how to 'run' a race b/c she is the P.E. teacher?!?!?!) Chris starts cracking jokes about some of the stuff going on, and no one laughs. at all. BUMMER. these people are snobs, and are taking this race WAY to seriously......

The timer goes off and we are on our way.....the race is pretty simple, 4 right turns. There are a lot of people, and Chris pulls ahead of me really early, I decide to hang out at my slow 9 minute mile pace and finish when I finish..... I am getting passed left and right (literally) by these high school kids, and it is kind of annoying b/c they (most of them) were rude and bumping into me and NOT saying excuse me.....I sincerely hope my children have manners when/if they run races later in life.....anyways.... I hit the 1 mile mark at 8:52 and was feeling pretty OK, not great ~~ my knee had been kind of rubbery/stiff feeling the past few days, so I rested it for about 2 days before the run, and it was aching a lil bit at the 1 mile, so I decided to ignore the Garmin and listen to my body (knee) instead.....

I kept on running and was feeling OK, not great, not bad, and was still getting thoroughly annoyed at the kids in the race, and the serious-ness of it, no one was talking or joking, anywhere!!! Around the 1.75 mile (I think) I heard a younger girl breathing kinda funny, really wheezy and short choppy breaths. I glanced over my left shoulder just as she fell down. And she didn't really fall, she collapsed or crumpled, she just folded her tiny lil body all up on top of itself, I have never seen such a thing. NOBODY stopped but me!!!!! *PISS OFF JERKS* (not like any of them will ever read this, but it REALLY pisses me off) I grabbed her shoulder and asked if she was ok.....she was trying desperately to get her asthma inhaler thingee out of her pocket, and she looked up at me and said, with tears in her eyes, "I don't wanna die"...... ummm..... TERROR! what am I supposed to do??? "god, help me to help this little girl" I looked all over the place and couldn't find a race staff person anywhere, so I helped her to the next driveway where some spectators were parked in their lawn chairs, and had their cell phone. The man called 911 while the lady went to consoling the little girl. I stood there dumbly just watching and the old man told me to go finish the race, they'd take care of her now. I thanked him, and took off. About 2-3 minutes later, I could hear the sirens getting closer, and I knew she would be in good hands now. The more I ran, the more pissed off I got. Who in the world could possibly think that 90 seconds on your official time is more important than helping some young kid???? When does it all become me, me, me??? I honestly don't remember anything about the last mile, except that I was worrying about her, I never got her name or anything. When I finally did cross the finish line, I was mostly concerned about her, and quite happy to see my kids.... it is an amazing feeling to have 4 lil people whom I created watch mommy cross the finish line!

I went to get some water and heard the PA announcers saying that they needed the parents of (insert name here) to ambulance 14 immediately. I can only assume that was her, I did overhear some EMT's saying that she was standing on her own and just wanted her mom, again, I am assuming they are talking about the same girl.

Meanwhile, Chris PR'ed it in record (duh) time -- he finished in under 25 minutes!!!!! CRAZ-eeee!!!

The kids ran their race after ours. They had it broken down into age groups, 2-3 year olds, 4-5 year olds, 6-7 year olds, and ages 8+. So, none of our kids were against each other (whew!!!)

The youngest ones ran a short out and back, and the course got longer for each succeeding age group. The kids had fun, although, Justin was mad b/c he wanted to run a "real road race" like Mommy and Daddy!!! But, they each got a bib, a ribbon, and some orange pop from McDonald's.

We didn't stick around after the race b/c we wanted to go home, we had about 1600 other things to get done! Before we were even back at the van, we decided this was a NO for next year (or ever) the people were just too rude, the RRCA racers are way too serious, and it just wasn't fun. I'd never race if they were all like this!

Our official times:

Chris~24:57

8:01 mile

8th out of 11 male 30-34

259 out of 665 racers

Julie ~ 28:53

9:17 mile

14th out of 26 female 30-34

383 out of 665 racers