News of the weekend: I ran my 5k!
So many things I want to share with you...
First off, I took a cab to the race at 8:45am. My cab driver, self-proclaimed "craziest cabbie in Dublin", was more than ready to crack jokes about the race. I told him how fast the winner of the race was last year--17mins.
"How fast are you gonna run it?"
"......30 mins"
"Oh JAYsus."
That felt good.
When we pulled up at the race entrance, we were stopped by a crossing guard giving directions. The cabbie rolled down his window.
"We're here for the bike race!"
"Bike race?" the crossing guard looks confused.
"Well if ye let her run, ye'll be here all feckin' day!"
LOL
So I stretch, I line up, the gun goes off, and within 30 seconds I'm in the back of the pack. But like every other race I've done, I just turn up my little headphones and soldier on.
Well, it's not long after the starting line that I begin to smell gasoline. I run and run, but by km 4 I'm still smelling it--did I step in a puddle of gas? What's going on?
I pass a police officer (garda) blocking off traffic, and she shouts to someone behind me, "Is that the last of 'em?"
...I look over my shoulder. The end-of-race motorcycle garda is puttering along right behind me. I could have DIED!
But did I quit? No! And you know what, as I ran on, a handful of people fell out behind me, and I kept on a'runnin, and when I hit the finish line I looked down at my watch and my time was
33m 30s! I laughed out loud--it's actually a respectable time!
That's 10.8min miles!!! A personal best since I've started running again! And you know what, that's a pretty good pace! I'm serious!!! So good, in fact, that out of the 317 racers....
I placed 312! LOL, not great, but not last!
I walked back to the clubhouse afterward, and I was reminded once more of the fact that I'm in Ireland when I read the sign on the clubhouse door:
"Changing rooms at right." "Toilets at left." "Tea and biscuits straight on."
Nothing about a steaming cup of tea sounds good to me as I'm dripping sweat, but it's Ireland, and it's just poor manners to turn down a cuppa. So I sipped my scalding tea with milk, had two biscuits, then packed up my running bag and headed on my way.
So many things I want to share with you...
First off, I took a cab to the race at 8:45am. My cab driver, self-proclaimed "craziest cabbie in Dublin", was more than ready to crack jokes about the race. I told him how fast the winner of the race was last year--17mins.
"How fast are you gonna run it?"
"......30 mins"
"Oh JAYsus."
That felt good.
When we pulled up at the race entrance, we were stopped by a crossing guard giving directions. The cabbie rolled down his window.
"We're here for the bike race!"
"Bike race?" the crossing guard looks confused.
"Well if ye let her run, ye'll be here all feckin' day!"
LOL
So I stretch, I line up, the gun goes off, and within 30 seconds I'm in the back of the pack. But like every other race I've done, I just turn up my little headphones and soldier on.
Well, it's not long after the starting line that I begin to smell gasoline. I run and run, but by km 4 I'm still smelling it--did I step in a puddle of gas? What's going on?
I pass a police officer (garda) blocking off traffic, and she shouts to someone behind me, "Is that the last of 'em?"
...I look over my shoulder. The end-of-race motorcycle garda is puttering along right behind me. I could have DIED!
But did I quit? No! And you know what, as I ran on, a handful of people fell out behind me, and I kept on a'runnin, and when I hit the finish line I looked down at my watch and my time was
33m 30s! I laughed out loud--it's actually a respectable time!
That's 10.8min miles!!! A personal best since I've started running again! And you know what, that's a pretty good pace! I'm serious!!! So good, in fact, that out of the 317 racers....
I placed 312! LOL, not great, but not last!
I walked back to the clubhouse afterward, and I was reminded once more of the fact that I'm in Ireland when I read the sign on the clubhouse door:
"Changing rooms at right." "Toilets at left." "Tea and biscuits straight on."
Nothing about a steaming cup of tea sounds good to me as I'm dripping sweat, but it's Ireland, and it's just poor manners to turn down a cuppa. So I sipped my scalding tea with milk, had two biscuits, then packed up my running bag and headed on my way.
where was the race? it sounds amazing. way to keep going and not be last. love the cabbie's comment, would have made me smile. keep up the racing, i bet it was a pretty run if nothing else!
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