The Cure is Now 5K

So once again i found myself woefully unprepared for a race. Having been sick the week before and managing 2 miles the week of. But what the hell, right?

The Good

It was 37 degrees out. Thats better then hot.
The course was really supported by volunteers.
Gabriel and I ran a bit together and he is all into our Turkey Trot now.
I finally got a damn racing bib.

The Not Great

It was 37 degrees out.
There was no mat to run over so your time wasn't as exact.
It was HILLY. As in there's a hill, there's a slight upward grade, there's a hill, oh downhill yay! Oh, another hill. This was unexpected and nothing I'd ever done before.
Apparently I still have asthma. But I was lucky to find an inhaler that had only expired six months ago.
Now I know why runners wear sunglasses.
You know that sinuses full of chlorine feeling? You can get that running, who knew?

It was a hard race for me. I had really no energy from the onset. It was weird, I wasn't in pain or what I'd consider tired, rather I was fatigued. Like my body just didn't want to move. Given my illness and craptastic diet (under remedy as we speak) this was not shocking, but it still sucked.

I had to walk the hills. My knees did better then I expected and hours later they are sore but not anywhere near how they felt the last race. ABout 1.5 miles in I realized I was never going to make a PR. Or maybe I could have but I would have been dying the last mile and more then likely hurt myself.

So I ran as fast as I felt was knee friendly when it wasn't uphill. About .25 miles from the finish Gabriel joined me. So then it wasn't about a PR at all but about it being a good experience for him. To be honest it was totally unexpected and sort of threw me off. But I'm glad he did it.

So I made it in 45:10 which is about three minutes over my last time (CORRECTION it was less then my first race, so I did set a PR   First 5K  My time was 46:26 even if it was a little tiny one.)  I was hoping to be under 42. But when I sat down and thought it out it wasn't that bad. Sort of.

I walked about a third of this, ran the rest and went in with the kid .25 miles before the finish. Besides, while I still cringe at the photos (HOW can I still be THAT big?!) I look better then I did the last race. Less rolls of stuff.

I know  should run outside before racing but well, it hurts my knees. So I'll do the 8K in December and train at the gym over the Winter and then reassess. I don't LIKE to run outside. I can't zone out. Although the trail portion,which was smaller then I'd liked, was fantastic and soft. So that is something to explore.

More then likely I'll attempt to run partially outside and see if doing that over time makes a difference. But I'm not in a hurry to do it again anytime soon, not on the road. Of course, a lot of this may have just been the day and the fact that it was not a good run.

Pre race: Eclipse made that hat

I look thoughtful but what I'm thinking is damn it's cold and when are they starting?!

Norwegian Art Film Shot

Does he know something I don't?

Part of the line, the start time was late.

This is when after I gave up trying to figure out with was wrong with me and just keep going.

When Gabriel runs onto the course. You can see I'm not sure I'm thrilled.  Having to stop so close in was a little hard, but I made sure he didn't know that. 

Realising that there will be other races, but Gabriel will only be eleven once and happy he wants to be with me.

Running across the finish. 

At the finish.
Normally there would be some kind of post finish picture but I was feeling pretty unwell at this point.  So we just walked to the car. When I look at how crappy I felt in the first picture, I'm surprised I did as well as I did,lol.

I don't want to sound like a bad mother, but I wanted to be honest about my initial ambivalence. Running is the only thing I do where my brain shuts off. It really is all about me because I am unavailable for anyone else while I am in motion. 

If this was a better run and I was going to PR would I have stopped and then slowed down so we could finish together? I would love to say sure of course, but I don't know. I think that if I do run another race where I think I will do better, I will ask that they wait at the finish. 

And on between times I think I might not suck as hard as I did today,lol, I'll run/walk with Gabriel. That is something I am very happy to do. The ambivalence I felt was unexpected. But then again the experience was as well. 

I need to be as comfortable with the part of me that might not be thrilled as I am with the part of me that is thrilled and happy that he would want to run in with me. I think coming to terms with things like that as a Mother is what keeps you from being the Mom with the vodka and orange juice in the minivan.

UPDATE: Gabriel told me that running with me was the best part of his day (aside from reaching level 50 in WOW). He said he was worried that he wouldn't be able to run fast or far enough to keep up with me. That he was happy he could.

That's better then any PR. I told him he was welcome to join me anytime as long as the race directors were ok with it. I mean I'm not going to be running in the front, lol.

He also said he got worried when we ran through and they asked me for my tag, he'd get in trouble. So I explained what a bandit was and why he wasn't one. He's a good kid.