Sunday, April 20, 2008

Uphill battle

I'll say this much: the hills are bitches.

That statement alone really could sum up my reflections on Saturday's 10K, but a person doesn't start a blog to be so succinct.

The event was a run/walk for St. Mary's Hospice; my parents participated in the 5K fun walk, which is why you see them in the photos below (left to right: Kelly, Mom, me, Dad).

Of course as you know, Kelly and I participated in the 10K run. And as it turns out, there are hills in Leonardtown. Oh, it's not really as though I'd never noticed before, having driven at least part of the course before. But running hills, even slight inclines, is far different than driving them -- in that you notice even the slightest change in grade. This might seem like common sense to you, and it is. But despite my familiarity with the area, I hadn't really thought about the terrain. And the 5K was mostly downhill. I think Kelly, who has been training on trails with hills, had an easier time than I, who have been training on flatty-flat-flat. This was in addition to Saturday being the hottest running day since the inception of the Sarahthon.

Both of us needed to stop and walk at points, most often when we reached the top of a significant hill. And for water -- but if I recall correctly they set up both water stations at the top of a hill. My time might have been faster if not for Slow Water-Getter Girl, who gave away the two cups she had to Kelly and one other runner just in front of me, and didn't seem to care about taking her time going back to the table and grabbing another cup for me, and in my head I was like, WOMAN! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M IN A RACE!?! EVERY SECOND COUNTS! Only kidding; really, I was more like, DID YOU NOT SEE THAT HILL I JUST *RAN* UP?! I CANNOT SPEAK BUT GIBBERISH, BUT THE ELIXIR OF LIFE WILL RESTORE CLARITY TO MY MIND!

Our walking breaks only lasted a minute or two and then we went right back to running, and thus it probably didn't add on too much time.

As I complain about the hills, it should be noted that while there were a number of significant climbs, there weren't a whole heck of a lot of descents. So our run went mostly like: uphill, flat, uphill, flat, uphill, flat.

It should also be noted that I think we still did pretty darn good, considering neither of us was really fully prepared to run a 10K. Kelly's been so busy that she can only fit in one or two runs a week, and I've been lazy. Nor are we hardcore runners like Spandex Man, who was quite confident in his Spandex shorts with the specially contoured pocket for, well... in addition to his shaved legs and arms. (Seriously? The Run for Hospice? *I* didn't even get up and shave before the race.)

After running up the hill on Route 5 going into Leonardtown (toward the CSM campus), and up another hill around the CSM parking lot, knowing we were almost there -- we could hear cheering and shouts of encouragement -- we walked up one final hill and started to run the last leg just as we crested the top. Where everyone could see us. Even though we had to take a few breaks, the goal was to finish strong for the camera:

The official results haven't been posted yet, but I'll update the Accomplishments section with my official time as soon as I find out. Meanwhile, I'll tell you that we finished a few seconds apart, in roughly 68:00. Once again, not an impressive time -- but I don't care. WE FINISHED.

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