Its weird, but I'm not totally disappointed in today's race at all....even though my time sucked. I'm happy I didn't have arch pain!! I ran with an older pair of shoes and my new orthotics. This is my first-ever run in orthotics.

This race was incredibly crowded. As we left the Mahaffey theater, there were spectators all the way to the pier, then all around the pier...packed with spectators until we crossed the bridge to Snell Isle.

Having passed along these roads so many times during St. Anthony's the first half of the race was like a stroll down memory lane. Some random thoughts:
-Hey, here's where I stopped with Jeff when he needed a break
-Wow...I never noticed these bricks have AUGUSTA BLOCK written on them
-It sure is a lot COOLER than I've ever felt here before (all the girls will "get" that one!)

There was about a half-mile of brick road somewhere around mile 5.5 to 6 that I decided to walk. Having had foot trouble lately, and not having trained much lately, I chose to be conservative there.

I felt great til about mile 7, when we came back to where the St. A's finish usually is. I was ready for the race to be over with....even if it was only an imaginary finish line!!

This is where I started what I should have been doing from the beginning, walking intervals. That lasted for about another mile, when I started having shooting leg cramps. I tried to chase them away by eating a bunch of gels and gatorade, but the cramps returned every time I tried running.

Next race, I'll take salt. Felt like the orthotics really helped a lot and as miserable as I felt, I didn't have arch pain!! Overall, I'm just so damned happy not to have arch pain that I don't care about my time at all.

Hung with some of my fellow Athena sisters for most of the rest of the race. Ran around the ball field and promptly got rocks in my shoes for my efforts. Stopped to de-rock. (How does an indoor field get rocks?)

Had a super-fast run through the chute.

Start walking in short intervals sooner. I'll have my chance next weekend.

It was BAD, BAD, BAD that they had cookies.


Good race, pretty organized. I'd like a little less long stretch of cobblestone though. The run through the ball field was fun...who doesn't welcome air-conditioning near the finish?