Once we got going Q and I spent the first mile zig zagging around the slow folks, which seemed to be pretty much everyone, and trying to find some open road. Q let me lead so I could pick the pace but I felt bad because any time I saw an opening I took it without making sure she could get through as well. Of course she's fabulous so every time I glanced over after threading a needle she was right there, even after I hopped on and ran down the curb for a few steps. According to my watch we finished the first mile in 8:27 which was 13 seconds faster than my goal pace.

Once we got into the second mile things opened up more but the faster pace combined with the cold air had my lungs closing up. Since I didn't have an inhaler on me I decided to dial it down a bit and see if I could get my HR down and avoid an asthma attack. We kept pushing and Q figured we were still well under a 9 minute pace and looking good when we hit the second mile marker.

I was still having trouble pulling in enough air and my HR was hovering around 190 so I was afraid to pick up the pace. I was fading and ready to give up when Q told me to pick up my cadence so I tried and that seemed to help. We were keeping pace and my HR finally went down a bit. We rounded the second to last turn with about half a mile to go. My legs were wearing out by then and she told me to keep my arms close and use their pumping to propel my legs. I did that and then picked up the pace to try and finish strong.

When we passed the 3 Mile marker I knew I wasn't going to hit my sub 27 goal but was still hoping to PR by coming under 27:30. Q dropped off when we rounded the last corner with less than a tenth of a mile to go and I started seeing spots. I knew I was pushing too hard but tried sucking more air through my nose and ignored the warning bells to make it across the finish line with my HR at 201.

Q caught me right after I crossed and asked my time so I looked at my watch but was crushed when I saw it because it was messed up. I told her I must have bumped it or something because it read 27.12 seconds. Thinking I was going to have to wait for the official results to know my time I was ready to cry. I checked my HR to see if it had gone down and was in the 160s. Then I looked at my time again and realized that the watch was just fine and that I was the one that was messed up. With my HR returning to normal I was able to read the time properly at 27:12 which is a PR by 18 seconds.

There were two particularly memorable moments in the race for me. The first was the female traffic officer dancing back and forth across the street she was assigned to calling out encouragement to all the runners. Q high fived her as we passed and she definitely got a smile out of me. The other was a couple of women that we passed during the second mile who must have started right up at the front because they were running pretty slow yet it still took us more than a mile to catch them. They were notable not for their lack of speed but because as we zipped by them I caught just a small snippet of their conversation in which one woman was relating her labor and deliver story to the other. Not something you usually hear during a race.

I feel it necessary to add that I was the 347th woman out of 2109. My AG was huge and there were definitely more women running than men so this feels like a really big deal to me. Big kudos to Q for keeping me motivated and coaching me through the rough spots.

Take a puff of my inhaler before starting the race, make sure I was in the chute early enough to get ahead of the stroller pushers, walkers and assorted slow folk, train more.

Q and I got our photo taken, downed a couple cups of Gatorade and then Q made pancakes for breakfast. Yay for sifted flour and fluffed egg whites!


Asthma and crowds.


I'm actually surprised that this race wasn't a disaster like RAM's other races. Of course I had someone else pick up my packet, didn't have to park and didn't attempt to take part in the post race festivities. The idea of waiting in line behind hundreds of other people for "free" food just wasn't appealing. I'd do this one again though.