There were men in uniform presenting the flag, an old style barbershop quartet singing the National Anthem, runners in their camis (military issue camo uniform, not camisoles!), and many civilians just showing support. The Pittsburgh Penguins mascot and a few members were there and the OTA crew made a video of all the runners, the race, a few interviews, and such to send to the troops over seas. The best part of all, for me, was that my wonderful husband, Shane, decided to run it with me!
He was supposed to pace me to a PR. He kept telling me that a 5K would be SO easy! HAHAHA!
He took off like a shot at the gun (no pun intended!) and I paced myself for a PR. Shane kept stopping or running backwards to wait for me but I didn't want to get off my pace. Then 1.25 miles in we came to one of the biggest road hills I've ever faced! Even the leaders were walking the top of it over a quarter mile ahead of me! As the reached the turn around at the top and came back down I could see they were pouring sweat and they could barely offer words of encouragement as they worked to keep upright on the steep slope. Shane visibly slumped and I could tell he was ready to give up so I charged ahead and walked with him to the top.
We took off running again at the top, leapfrogging eachother as he took walk breaks between sprints while I stayed at a steady pace. After the downhill there was another fairly steep grade but much shorter. We walked it and then I took off my hat and gloves, handed them to Shane, and took off for the finish. I kept up a great pace (for me) until about 2/10th's of a mile from the finish. All the sudden my stomach churned and I knew I'd over done it. I made a B-line for the grass and just made it in time. I whipped off my shirt and wiped my mouth and threw it in the grass before picking up the pace again for the finish. (Can I just brag about how awesome my husband is here? He picked up my nasty shirt and carried it to the finish so I wouldn't have to walk back and pick it up later!)
I rounded the last turn and could see the shoot. I couldn't make a PR but I could make a post-baby PR! I floored it with everything I had left, cleared the finish mat, and promptly puked again. Shane finished about 30 seconds behind me. We were 166th and 172nd respectively! Not too bad for Shane's first race with NO training. My officially time was 31:48 but since there was no starting mat I am going with my Garmin time of 31:42! That's over 4 minutes off of last weeks 5K even with a giant hill that I almost completely walked! I KNOW I could have PR'ed if I had an easy course! (My pre-baby race PR was 29:59 and my training PR was 27:xx.)
Since I didn't take a picture (What was I thinking?!) here's a pic of my husband and I at the Baltimore Running Festival last year:
Lastly, let me say thank you to all of the veterans out there! To those who have served, are serving, or will serve please accept my heartfelt gratitude! I hope our race entry fees sent you a well-deserved luxury item or two! Happy Veteran's Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment