Started off waaay too fast -- it's hard not to when you are surrounded by so many people. When I looked down and saw 10:15 as my pace I hit the breaks and tried to bring myself down to a more sustainable 13:30 or so, and that was kind of my goal. But the second I hit the bridge, I knew I wouldn't be able to run the whole thing. Did I mention that bridge is HUGE? Just really really steep. The 5Kers went halfway up and then turned around, but we had to scale the whole thing. That was around mile 2, and I walked the most of the bridge up and ran it down.

Once in Clearwater, my right leg started feeling really funky. My foot and all the way up my leg was tingly and half-numb. I stopped to walk, hoping I could get whatever was causing this to stop, and it didn't, so I went back to running. It stayed that way for around three miles -- and at one point, the bottom of my left foot was numb, too. But at around mile 6.5 or so, it miraculously stopped and all feeling came back into my right leg and left foot.

I could have done without the damn banana. There was a guy dressed as a banana who was a volunteer and also, from what I gathered, had coached some of the gals doing the race. At the first water stop (just before the bridge) he was cheering and giving high fives (alongside and Elvis and a Marilyn Monroe) and that was all well and good. But then he blazed past me in his !#@$#% banana costume as I was crossing the bridge. Sure enough, there he was at the next rest stop. (It was at this point that I noticed the M-Dot tatoo on his inner bicep; so all of this was a cakewalk for him, even in a hot banana costume). Blazed past me AGAIN after a mile or so and was at the NEXT rest stop. I felt a little better after I saw the tattoo, but dang, it's demoralizing to keep getting passed by someone who was literally standing still for large portions of the race!

The Clearwater side was the same loop twice. The second time, it seemed to go so much faster! Maybe because I recognized the landmarks, I don't know. I pretty much ran all of miles 4-7. Then, we got to the bridge again. Oy. Up I walked again. On the other side, a nice guy said to me "this is what you trained for -- the last mile!" and that choked me up a little. But he kinda lied -- it was a bit further to MM8, and it's not just 9 miles, it's 9.3 miles. I walked quite a bit of mile 9, sadly. But I did run in and finish strong for the last quarter mile, at least. As we were coming around the corner toward the finish<, I could hear the awards already being given out, and saw a lot of gals heading to their cars already. I had to say "excuse me, I'm slow!" so they realized I was still trying to finish, but once they realized, they were very, very supportive and about 20 gals started clapping and cheering.


Well, I wasn't last. In my AG I was third-from-last. the nice thing about being at the total back of the pack, though, is that the finish announcer had no one else to focus on -- she announced my name, my town, and then started riffing on my Cornell shirt. The attention at the finish was sweet.

I think I did OK with nutrition. I had my own water when I needed it, but also took from at least three of the water stations (and there was more than three). I ran out of water around mile 8, but I was fine to get to th end. I had a packet of Shot Blocks and I took one at mile 3, one at mile 6, and then my tummy started grumbling so I finished off the bag over the course of mile 7-8.

More hills in training, and just more training. Also, I wish I had had a bigger breakfast -- my tummy was RUMBLY with hunger by mile 7 or so.

Also, I bought swim gear, but chickened out mostly due to time constraint. I wish I had just hopped in the water, since I waited over an HOUR to get out of the parking lot and on my way.

Got my medal and some water and wandered over to the tent area where they were giving out race results. Hooked up with the two older women who had walked the whole thing (we kept jockying back and forth and finally they did, in fact, finish before me -- the 70 year old won her age group!). I just needed to walk, and chatting with them was a nice distraction. One kindly let me use her phone to call DH, too. Got to cheer the last finishers over the line before heading out. According to my car dash, the temp was 80 degrees when we I was leaving at 11:30.


Not enough base miles, and not enough practice with hills.


Great food tent, but the lines were so long by the time I finished, I had to skip it. Volunteers were awesome and everyone is so very encouraging. Hardest part was getting out of the parking garage and off of Clearwater Bech when it was all over. Heck, in the end, I even made peace with the banana.

Pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dineen/sets/72157623826627016/


Postscript: Dan, a.k.a. "the banana" and I have truly made peace, between our discussions on this thread and offline. He also gave me a fabulous pep talk, the conclusion of which deserves a more public airing. So, with his permission:

"It will get easier, but do not let anyone passing you (even a banana) get you down. Everyone starts somewhere its the fact that you are doing it that counts. Even the best runners were once novices."

I hope anyone reading this and considering their first 15K race will take this advice! I hope to see Dan out there again next year.