Hot Dam 2008

Well I did survive the run. It was not pretty and and it was not overly enjoyable, but I did finish. Dead last. That was a huge blow to my ego, but in a way it does make me want to work at it more.
To start from the beginning, I knew I was in trouble from the start. Actually from before the start as I was watching everyone line up. I was surrounded by real runners. You know the types. The kind of people that were obviously jackrabbits in another life. I did manage to get in with a group of similarly shaped people only to find out that they were just doing the 2 mile run. I was very tempted at the one mile turn around to just do the two mile, but I knew I would be disappointed in myself if I did that so I plodded on. The course had more hills than I expected but it was a pretty run around a small lake. A lake that I contemplated swimming across after the 2.5 mile turn around thinking it would be fast to swim across than continue running. I figured it would be frowned upon by the officials and that I really had no idea what kind of muck was in there.
I kept the person ahead of me in sight but barely. I tried desperately to keep up, but the second half was a lot of walking and I just had no more go. What was really bad was when one of race officials came driving up behind me and asked if I needed help. Mortified, I told him that I planned on continuing on my own steam even if it was very slow steam. None the less, a car followed me the rest of the way in which I suppose is the usual protocol, but still frustrating to me.
I averaged 12 minutes a mile which is pretty darn slow and I am embarrassed to type it, but I am doing it anyways because everything from here is going to be faster. MUCH faster. And really, I am semi relieved it was that fast considering the amount of walking I did.

After the race was over, I escaped pretty quickly and stopped and got a drink and two bags of ice. Climbing out of the car after sitting for awhile was pretty painful and I was glad I got the ice. I went to make an ice bath but apparently I was a little more brain dead than I though because when I turned the water on, I turned it all the way to hot instead of cold. I did realize the error pretty quickly but the bath ended up not quite as cold as it should have been. I think it still helped a lot though because I am not nearly as sore as I thought I would be today.

I still don't think this was fun at all, but it was very educational. Mostly because it did enlighten me to that fact I am going to have to really get it in gear and start working on speed work. But, I did finish and that is what matters. And now, I know that if I can do a 5 mile, I can do a 10k. Which is my next goal...and hopefully do it a little faster!! Thanks for all of your support and great suggestions! I appreciate all of you!