Here is a slightly edited version of what I wrote on my One Mile Race yesterday.
First Attempt at Sub 5:00, 2011
an excerpt from my running log
Well... This was interesting... Where to begin?!
First, I woke up and Matt and I BOTH made it out of bed. No slacking! Got up to do the routine, and since I am in my ... "cycle"... the whole bathroom process is not as simple. There was a toilet malfunction, AKA: Tampon clogged the toilet, so NOW myself and Matthew can't, as my coach puts it, empty our intestines without a plunger... Which.. I don't have. A plunger is one of those things you don't want to ever need, so you never go out of your way to buy. I realize the toilet is usable, but we've all seen what happens to clogged toilets after a few runners use it on race day. Yeah-- that's not happening in my cottage.
Matt, Being the amazing guy he is (or he just had to... poo...), went to the store and bought one. We're just a tad behind schedule. Turns out the F*ing plunger sucks because you actually need to break these things in. The rubber is still so stiff that it doesn't actually do the job.... not without way more effort and time being spent in the bathroom than either of us wanted. Matt spent like 20 minutes with the thing, then I said "Get out of my way! I'm going to do it!"... so I flushed the toilet just to check... and suddenly we were back in business. I didn't even need to plunge! I'm magic!
TMI? Maybe... I left out the gross stuff... But this was part of the story and couldn't be ignored.
Anyway, we're on the road Now. He's in his car, I'm following in mine since we are going separate directions after our races... I don't know how to get to the race from my new place, so he says "follow me"... I realize about .5 miles from my house that I can't remember if I have my phone... but "Oh well"... Matt is right there and no one ever calls me anyway.
So, we're getting off 146 and onto the Mass Pike, and Matt has fast lane (like everyone else in the world other than me), so he gets through before me. No problem, I'm only going to be a bit behind him, and I'll catch up, right?
WRONG!
I go through the cash lane, give the money start getting on the pike, and suddenly my car wont switch gears.... or actually wont do anything... It stalls... right on the on ramp of the busiest highway in the state. No problem, Matt is right there, I'll just call him. Wait a second... Matt can't see me anymore because of the fog, and I don't have my phone.... MAJOR PROBLEM! I scramble in my bag for a minute or two just to check. Nothing. Shit.
I don't want Matt to get too far ahead so I immediately think of the next, obvious, and most logical solution... "Jump out of the car and wave hands like a monkey". First car that goes by stops. SWEET! The reason they stopped is because the girl in the passenger seat recognized me. When I was a senior in HS I was 1 of 6 people chosen to be "senior leaders" for the eighth graders (a fancy way of saying we're good role models)... I happened to be this girls senior leader. I didn't remember her because I was set up with a bunch of kids, but she remembered me and begged her sister to stop. I called Matt who had unfortunately just passed the last exit on the pike for 16+ miles.... I tried to start my car again... Nothing... Battery light kept flashing... So I waited, waited, and waited for my hero, Matthew Germain.
About 40 minutes later he was at my car and a highway safety guy just happened to be driving by to get a chair off the road further up. He didn't have a tow truck, but made a call for us. While we were waiting I thought I'd try my car again. IT STARTED! So after some deliberation on what to do next (Matt had already missed his race, and clearly my car was not reliable enough to drive out there) We decided to drop it off in some random/safe-ish parking lot and go to the track for my race in his car. At this point in time we are both well aware that I have no ride back to the car... but we'll figure out how I'm getting back to the random location for the piece-of-shit-parked-car later. Since Matt had to work at 12, a solid 40 minutes from the track, he was not going to be able to stay for my race... so this was a risky decision. Not to mention my car might not start a second time! This could get interesting.
So while warming up for my race, the adrenaline was THROUGH THE ROOF! I was trying to find someone that could A. Take me back to Millbury where my car was dropped off, or B. Take me to Matts work where I could borrow his car for a few hours to chill somewhere else while he worked, and have him drive a million miles back to my car/out of his way for me when he got off work... Tim G was at the race and I know he grew up in Auburn (right near Millbury) and goes to school in Lowell (right near Matt) so either way he's going to be of some help. Fortunately I have good friends, and it was no problem for him... Unfortunately for Matthew (but fortunately for me) Tim was heading to Lowell... Which meant poor Matt had to drive me back to my randomly located car... but at least he knew where it was, and I would get to see him one last time before the week began!
.... Once I confirmed with Tim I could "focus" on the race.
I ran 5:05... BLah, blah, blah... BLAHHH!
There was a problem with the starter before the 60 meter dash which delayed the meet at least 30 minutes... The adrenaline wore off, and I just didn't have what it took. I could write pages and pages about how difficult it is to run a PR in the mile while racing High School boys who have not come to terms with being beat by a girl... but the pre-race story is way more interesting than the race story so I'll leave it at that. Just didn't have it--- Rightfully so-- Training was spotted, didn't do the races I was supposed to do the past two weeks (which my training was geared for... so that screwed my coach up)... and I had just a few setbacks.
Oh well
I got to the race... That was an accomplishment.
Oh yeah- I got home too.
And to work...
And to the mechanics...
Now I'm borrowing a car and will learn the fate of the other thing sometime tomorrow...
First Attempt at Sub 5:00, 2011
an excerpt from my running log
Well... This was interesting... Where to begin?!
First, I woke up and Matt and I BOTH made it out of bed. No slacking! Got up to do the routine, and since I am in my ... "cycle"... the whole bathroom process is not as simple. There was a toilet malfunction, AKA: Tampon clogged the toilet, so NOW myself and Matthew can't, as my coach puts it, empty our intestines without a plunger... Which.. I don't have. A plunger is one of those things you don't want to ever need, so you never go out of your way to buy. I realize the toilet is usable, but we've all seen what happens to clogged toilets after a few runners use it on race day. Yeah-- that's not happening in my cottage.
Matt, Being the amazing guy he is (or he just had to... poo...), went to the store and bought one. We're just a tad behind schedule. Turns out the F*ing plunger sucks because you actually need to break these things in. The rubber is still so stiff that it doesn't actually do the job.... not without way more effort and time being spent in the bathroom than either of us wanted. Matt spent like 20 minutes with the thing, then I said "Get out of my way! I'm going to do it!"... so I flushed the toilet just to check... and suddenly we were back in business. I didn't even need to plunge! I'm magic!
TMI? Maybe... I left out the gross stuff... But this was part of the story and couldn't be ignored.
Anyway, we're on the road Now. He's in his car, I'm following in mine since we are going separate directions after our races... I don't know how to get to the race from my new place, so he says "follow me"... I realize about .5 miles from my house that I can't remember if I have my phone... but "Oh well"... Matt is right there and no one ever calls me anyway.
So, we're getting off 146 and onto the Mass Pike, and Matt has fast lane (like everyone else in the world other than me), so he gets through before me. No problem, I'm only going to be a bit behind him, and I'll catch up, right?
WRONG!
I go through the cash lane, give the money start getting on the pike, and suddenly my car wont switch gears.... or actually wont do anything... It stalls... right on the on ramp of the busiest highway in the state. No problem, Matt is right there, I'll just call him. Wait a second... Matt can't see me anymore because of the fog, and I don't have my phone.... MAJOR PROBLEM! I scramble in my bag for a minute or two just to check. Nothing. Shit.
I don't want Matt to get too far ahead so I immediately think of the next, obvious, and most logical solution... "Jump out of the car and wave hands like a monkey". First car that goes by stops. SWEET! The reason they stopped is because the girl in the passenger seat recognized me. When I was a senior in HS I was 1 of 6 people chosen to be "senior leaders" for the eighth graders (a fancy way of saying we're good role models)... I happened to be this girls senior leader. I didn't remember her because I was set up with a bunch of kids, but she remembered me and begged her sister to stop. I called Matt who had unfortunately just passed the last exit on the pike for 16+ miles.... I tried to start my car again... Nothing... Battery light kept flashing... So I waited, waited, and waited for my hero, Matthew Germain.
About 40 minutes later he was at my car and a highway safety guy just happened to be driving by to get a chair off the road further up. He didn't have a tow truck, but made a call for us. While we were waiting I thought I'd try my car again. IT STARTED! So after some deliberation on what to do next (Matt had already missed his race, and clearly my car was not reliable enough to drive out there) We decided to drop it off in some random/safe-ish parking lot and go to the track for my race in his car. At this point in time we are both well aware that I have no ride back to the car... but we'll figure out how I'm getting back to the random location for the piece-of-shit-parked-car later. Since Matt had to work at 12, a solid 40 minutes from the track, he was not going to be able to stay for my race... so this was a risky decision. Not to mention my car might not start a second time! This could get interesting.
So while warming up for my race, the adrenaline was THROUGH THE ROOF! I was trying to find someone that could A. Take me back to Millbury where my car was dropped off, or B. Take me to Matts work where I could borrow his car for a few hours to chill somewhere else while he worked, and have him drive a million miles back to my car/out of his way for me when he got off work... Tim G was at the race and I know he grew up in Auburn (right near Millbury) and goes to school in Lowell (right near Matt) so either way he's going to be of some help. Fortunately I have good friends, and it was no problem for him... Unfortunately for Matthew (but fortunately for me) Tim was heading to Lowell... Which meant poor Matt had to drive me back to my randomly located car... but at least he knew where it was, and I would get to see him one last time before the week began!
.... Once I confirmed with Tim I could "focus" on the race.
I ran 5:05... BLah, blah, blah... BLAHHH!
There was a problem with the starter before the 60 meter dash which delayed the meet at least 30 minutes... The adrenaline wore off, and I just didn't have what it took. I could write pages and pages about how difficult it is to run a PR in the mile while racing High School boys who have not come to terms with being beat by a girl... but the pre-race story is way more interesting than the race story so I'll leave it at that. Just didn't have it--- Rightfully so-- Training was spotted, didn't do the races I was supposed to do the past two weeks (which my training was geared for... so that screwed my coach up)... and I had just a few setbacks.
Oh well
I got to the race... That was an accomplishment.
Oh yeah- I got home too.
And to work...
And to the mechanics...
Now I'm borrowing a car and will learn the fate of the other thing sometime tomorrow...