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| (Please excuse the poor quality...my digital camera finally kicked the bucket and my new one isn't supposed to come in until Monday, so I had to resort to my BlackBerry camera). |
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| I'm not normally this awake before 7:45 on a Saturday! LOL |
I checked my bag (obviously can't go anywhere without my cell phone, chapstick/lipgloss, and keys haha), and then headed a few more blocks over to Broad to wait with the other 40,000 runners. It was quite a long wait, since I had arrived around 8:20 (the first wave started at 8:30), and my wave wasn't supposed to start until 9:16....what can I say? I like to be early for things that I'm excited about, and apparently thousands of other people felt the same way! :) This is the first race I've run in that used chip timing, and I am definitely a fan! Anticipating a gun shot to start a race always makes me feel like I'm gonna throw up....I blame that on my years of track & cross country. So, after what seemed like forever, Wave QA approached the starting line, then before I knew it, we were off! I was near the front of the wave, but about 2 blocks in, I could feel my knee brace sliding off my knee, so I had to make 2 very quick stops to try and fix it. By the end of the race, I think it was acting as more of a calf brace, but I finally decided to suck it up and quit wasting time trying to adjust it. As I told my Mom on the phone during my walk back to my apt., I think it's time to buy new knee braces that use straps instead of the pull-on one that I've been using.
Aside from the knee brace annoyance, the race was pretty awesome! The live bands and cheering spectators made it lots of fun! The one thing I learned for next year is that it's not a good idea to sign up for a slower wave than what you're capable of running just to stay on the safe side. Even though I knew I should finish under 60 minutes (notwithstanding a bad injury or an act of God), I signed up for a 61-65 min. wave, thinking that it would be better to run at the front of a slower wave than at the back of a faster one. The result: I got stuck in more bottlenecks than I've ever seen at Capital Ale House! The joggers who signed up for the faster waves were spread out everywhere across Monument, so those of us at a faster pace ended up zigzagging back and forth just to get through them. Not a huge deal, just something that could have been somewhat avoided if I had been in an earlier wave....but at least now I know that. :)
Overall, it was an awesome experience and I ended up setting my personal best record:
During the race, I kept thinking about Dad and reminding myself to push harder because I was running this for him. And I also wanted to have a good report to give Mom and Jon when I called after the race. When I crossed the finish line, I didn't think I had improved much, if any, on my usual time, but when I got home and checked the chip time, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I had knocked about 5 minutes off of my usual 10K time. Granted, this was a very flat course and much easier than most other routes that I tend to run, but I'm still pretty satisfied overall. I hope Dad was watching....I'm pretty sure he was :)
Okay, well, as if all of the black and yellow this morning wasn't enough of a reminder, VCU's big Final Four game is tonight so I should probably start getting ready before my neighbor and I go scope out the least crowded local bar to watch the game. Let's Go Rams!!!!
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