Here Comes the Sun...

Today, I ran another 10k, parking my car at Memorial Park. It was not as good as the last one.

First off, as you may have read, I haven't done that much running this week (in fact, Andy has beat me in mileage this week). Today's run was either going to be great (fresh legs) or tiresome (stiff legs). It was tiresome. Oh, and not only have I not run, but I haven't even been to the gym AND I ate Chinese food last night (entertaining a friend who was housebound due to a sugery).

I started off really slow again, because I wanted to save my legs for the race. My legs felt like concrete. I trudged along down Memorial and Allen Parkway to the race start. At the start, ran into Rusty-the-Super-Walker (an ex-TNT speedwalker who can clear a marathon in under 5. He did the Rodeo Run in one hour 2 seconds). I also ran into some other TNT coaches and mentors from my past.

What I love about the Bayou City Classic are the costumes and centipedes. Here are some of the centipedes that made me laugh: there was a Dick Cheney look-alike (due to a mask) wearing cammo and carrying a shotgun. Running in front of him were runners dressed like ducks and hunting dogs, led by another guy also dressed in cammo, but with fake blood on the side of his face. Running behind Cheney were runners dressed in black with "security" written on their shirts. Besides the Cheney centipedes, there were the "Running Noses" - about 6 runners wearing huge rubber noses leading a guy wearing a huge box of Kleenex. Oh, and there were about 8-9 runners dressed like penguins, but the costumes were hot and they lost two penguins in the race. The final centipede of note was the guy dressed like a nun leading 6 "Catholic schoolgirls." Some of the girls were guys in drag.

There were more costumes, but those were the funniest. If anyone is utterly confused, let me know.

I don't have a mile-by-mile breakdown because, frankly, I was unhappy while running and didn't pay that much attention to anything but my feet and the sweat running down my face. My fastest mile was mile 1 (12 minutes) and each mile was successively slower, culminating in a 14 mile in the end. I was miserable. My time was 1:21:49, so no PR, but I didn't expect to.

During the race, I saw Sarah playing photographer and then hooked up with Cassie, Edwin, Jessica and Holden at the end. I ate a huge cookie, a breakfast taco and some water, waited almost an hour and then trudged back to my car.

Dear Lord, was the heat unbearable (to me) by the end. The last leg home was miserable. I met up with a girl towards my last couple of miles and we were both miserable, so we adjusted our paces and times and ran to the park together. Misery loves company! But she was doing 20 miles, whereas I was planning on stopping at 15. She was a faster runner, so I ran a bit harder to keep up with her which was good for me since I was not using my full potential by that time.

With about 1 mile to my car, I told her to continue, because I had to walk. I was too hot and getting slightly dizzy.

I am home now, having guzzled plenty of water. I'm going to shower and then I'm thinking I want a nap. Today is the first day of my spring break, and I plan on taking lots of naps. I'll need them, since I'll be upping my mileage just a tad this week.

36 days until the Crescent City Classic.

Cheers!