So, the night before the race I had a wedding shower to go to. Of course, it was a Stock the Bar Wedding Shower and started at 7:30 in East Bumble. I had about 3 beers the entire night, played some beer pong with my bro and then got dragged into Flip Cup which meant a few more beers and a shot with the drunk bride-to-be. I wanted to be home by midnight but didn't get to bed until 1:30 am. And completely forgot about the damn time change until that moment. So I spent a sleepless night wondering if my new blackberry would automatically change the time and allow me to make it to the race in a timely fashion. Needless to say, it did but it took twenty minutes for me to find out if it was really 6:45 am or 7:45 am.
I opted to wear my AWESOME new Nike running jacket which was, of course, a lovely shade of green. I matched it with an Irish Yoga shirt that has drunkasses passed out in various awkward positions, a pair of capri running tights and my NY Yankees green baseball cap. It seemed warm when I left but apparently it just got fucking colder. Barbie and I got to the start and I was wondering if I needed to layer up more. Not that it mattered- I had nothing else to wear. Also working against me was my hungover state.
I. LITERALLY.WANTED.TO.CURL.UP.AND.DIE.
No joke. And my brother generously offered me his iPod to borrow. As Barbie can attest, I had no idea how to use it. I'm a nano girl and he had an iTouch. Added to that is the fact that I had no clue what kind of music I was about to be listening to!
The race had no official start. A group of green leprechauns had a sign and they corralled us behind it. People of course refused to move back so you had to fight through the crowd to get somewhere that you could breathe. The 5K started first so we got to witness some of their finish which made us happy because we realized it was a downhill finish. There is nothing better than a downhill finish. The weird thing about the lack of start was they had timing chips in a pouch inside your bib number. To add to the weirdness is that after you crossed the finish you had to go about 10 feet where someone used a wand lik
e thing to scan your bib. So your time was in no way accurate since the clock was back at the finish line. I opted to go with that time and just ignore whatever they say my time might be. I have not even looked at the official results. No clue if they are even posted anywhere.Anyway, I'm sure people at the start thought I was funny because I kept laughing. Granted, it was a downhill start which was nice in the cold weather because you got some momentum going into the race. But my brother had a comedian loaded onto the iPod and that was what I was hearing. Shit was hysterical. And NSFW. Or even public consumption. I couldn't stop laughing.
The course was not too bad, there were some hills. None were too bad except the one on Northside Drive. I wanted to give the fuck up. Turn around, walk to Barbie's car and wait for her to finish up. Of course, had I done that I would have passed her on the way back because she was battling a cold and not feeling so hot herself. So, she would have joined me. And I would have been back in bed in half an hour. The greatest thing about the course was the clear mile markers with water stations right there. At every mile. It was great. Except it slowed me down so I ended up skipping the stations at mile 5 and 6. Glad I did, because my time was still speedy by my standards.
My complaints about the course aren't too major. I really disliked that we ran a 3.1 loop twice around Atlantic station. It was weird to be running next to exits for the highway and I didn't like knowing what was coming. I am not the type of runner who looks up course maps. I want to know YES IT IS HILLY NO IT IS FLAT and that is it. So I knew that damn hill was coming and wanted to cry. I just had to keep pushing. Just thinking to myself, come on Erin, run one more mile and then you'll stop. Which was a lie because I knew I was going to make myself run all 6.2 miles. The other complaint I had was the bands. This was probably one race I could have done without the iPod but the thing about those bands is this was a St. Patrick's Day race and none of them played Irish music. I'm Irish and I love the music so I would have loved to hear it during my run. And they made it seem like there would be lots of bands....three is not lots.
The finish had plenty of portapotties which is great for me (warning TMI coming) because I have always got to go after a race. BAD. Plus they had bagels, bananas, water and energy drinks for the runners. They did raffles but the raffles were called while we were still running! By the time I was finished 1/2 the tents had packed up and gone home (including Team in Training which was weird). I waited for Barbie, we grabbed some water and hit the road. Both to go home and rest and feel better!
I spent my run picking certain people and trying to keep them in my sights or passing them in order to keep pace. At most of the mile markers, someone was yelling times out so I was averaging around 10 - 10:30 minute miles. My finishing time was 1:01.25 according to the clock. I don't know how accurate it is but it is only about a minute and a half slower than the Charles Harris 10 K so I was stoked. Now, I need to sign up for my next race!
UPDATE: Angel, it was in Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA. Happy now? Thanks for calling me out :)
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