The River Run 1/2 marathon was today and boy was it wet! This race is pre-registration only and as a seasoned runner who knows she can survive a half I felt obligated to make an attempt at running in a possible down pour. I had told the Walrus I would meat him at the finish and drive him to the start since it is point to point and we did not want to ride the bus from the finish to the start or vice versa. The rain was sooooo bad on the way out there in some spots my wipers on high were barely allowing any visibility. I knew I was in for a wet, wet day. I picked him up around 6:45 am and we headed to Berea leaving dry clothes and his car in Rocky River. This is when Murphy's Law kicked into high gear. I had one gel with me for the day, but decided it would be best to take a second. I asked my dealer (the Walrus) for an extra and to my dismay he did not have any (not even one for him). I knew I was running this race as a training run and decided I would just give him mine and hope not to "bonk" somewhere in the race. One of my favorite quotes is "The Body achieves what the Mind believes." Well, I knew I could make this run, just might not be anywhere near a good time for me. Next I asked what he had done with the keys to the bad scandanavian auto (the Saab - the piece of shit). He held them up and I said "are you going to carry them to the finish?" He looked perplexed. He didn't want to lug keys around. Thankfully our friend JR would be there and we hoped she would take them with her. We were in luck she did.
We got to the park at about 7:25 am hit the bathroom, switched into our running gear and grabbed hats. Lisa Mathews and I decided to run together and chat for the first part of the race and I actually got to look around and enjoy the scenery. I was running right around a 9:00-9:30 pace which was a bit slow but it was a training run. My feet became soaked by mile number 4 and stayed that way for the remainder of the race.
The rain never completely stopped but I did enjoy watching everybody coming and going around me. Around mile 9 I had to go to the bathroom as always seems to be the case this year (Blah!!). I was going to stop at the port-o-potty but this tall blonde beat me and I did not want to waist THAT much time waiting so I plodded onward in hopes I could literally keep my shit together :) I began to relax at mile 10 and opened up my stride for the last 3 miles and decided to finish as best I could with only a bit of gatorade and a mint.
I crossed the finish in 2:03.01. Not even close to my PR, but I found success in the fact that I had a comfortable run, finished with no gels, could still walk, didn't feel like shit and beat a girl in the Road Race Series that I had yet to beat!!
Now I need to rest the foot. Still can't figure out what the heck is going on with it.
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