North Bend Race

I ran a race today. I wasn't sure I was ready for it. I have race details, but I have details on my training week too. Last Sunday was my fabulous 21 miler - that was great. I was supposed to run Monday. But didn't. I ran 3 miles on Tuesday. On the treadmill at the gym. I lifted too. That was great. I had a 5:00 am wake-up Wednesday am - slept in 'til 6:00. I was scheduled to run 8 miles of 400 intervals/recovery, etc. at the track. At 6 am I decided to run on the road instead where there are marked quarter miles on the bike path. I headed out. Two houses down the street there was a strange guy hangin' out. At 6 am. Not smoking, not on a cell phone, not a neighbor. Just hangin' out. I ran down the block. I stopped and deliberated. It all freaked me out enough that I went back home. He had moved and there was mischevious activity going on, involving a car and another wandering individual. I went inside and locked the door, with intent to run later. Later. Later I was busy. Later the dishwasher guy was here until 5:00. By 5:30 I had loaded all three kids into the minivan for a trek to the track. They were in running shoes, ready to run or dig in the sand pits. The track nearby is being resurfaced and won't be ready for another month. We continued on to the next track further south. It's at a parks dept. community center, but was locked for the first time that I'd ever seen. The kids offered to climb the chainlink but it was 10 feet high. We drove around it looking for another way in. No such luck. We drove further south to the next track at a local high school. Except, after driving the perimeter and scanning from three different parking lots, there was no track. We drove south again. To another high school track. This one is a private school. The sign at the locked gate promptly reminded us of this fact and mentioned that violators would be prosecuted. I bought the kids dinner. We drove to one last track, just for kicks. This one was locked up like a fortress, and atop the high chain-link fence were three rows of barbed wire. I didn't run on Wednesday. We found a park near the airport where we could watch the planes come in for a landing, and found some amazing botanical gardens where the kids pretended they were fairies until sunset.

I oughtta say that when I came home, I locked the door, still freaked out from the morning. When someone tried to get in my backdoor at 11:15, I was sure glad I had it locked. Nice, eh? Oh, by the way, that day, it was a full moon.

Thursday I ran 5 miles. I stopped twice at the . . um . . restroom, and walked for a quarter mile somewhere in the middle. I ran 4 miles on Friday at the track at the gym. It's 19.5 laps to the mile. So I ran 4x19.5 = 78 laps. If that sounds like a lot of laps, check out this link I had in my dead runner's society email: http://www.srichinmoyraces.org/3100.

So, my race today . . . I consider myself a marathon runner, and train accordingly. I wanted badly to do that missed interval workout, because I wanted to know what it felt like to run 10k pace. My goal was to run a 44:00 10k. My PR from about 15 years ago is 40:52. If I could run a 44 today, the handy dandy team oregon pace wizard says I can run a 3:30 marathon, and that'd be great. I needed to run 7 minute pace. I oughtta say that the North Bend Alpine Days race is set on a beautiful course in the foothills of the Cascade Mtn. range, with views of Mt. Si. It was sunny and cool - great day for a run. My first mile was 6:58 - perfect. I didn't know I had it in me. Well, I thought I did, but you never know until you do it. My second mile was 6:30 - but me and the guy I was running next to both thought maybe it was marked too early. I felt great - really great. I was so excited. I hung tight to a couple of runners in front of me for mile 3, and held on to the pace. Mile 4 I set it in cruise control and drifted a bit. I'm used to wandering thoughts for a 26 mile race - I forgot that you can't stop to daydream in a 10k or it all goes by too quickly. I picked off a few people in mile 5, and hung on to the pace for mile 6. I think I slowed a little bit around mile 4 or 5, but not intentionally. I truly felt great. I was bummed when I saw the finish clock and it was 44:05 - and yet - it took me five seconds to get to the start line, so my net time? 44:00. Saweeeet! Check it out (Alpine Days). I'm so proud of myself.

What a crazy week of running. No long run tomorrow. My daughter's birthday party is tomorrow. No theme or anything, we're going to the beach to play. But it still requires planning and preparation. This child was born in August under the Zodiac sign Leo the Lion. She was born in the year 2000 - Chinese year of the Dragon - the dawn of the new millenium. She is named after one of the head stars 'Meissa or Lambda Ori' in the constellation Orion the Hunter. In arabic, the word 'Meissa' means 'the shining one'. You can only imagine what a fireball of a personality this child has. Meissa is turning 6 this week, and birthday parties are a big deal when you're six. It's a challenge to plan them without gobs of sugar and useless miscellaneous toys that kids seem to love. I think when people grow older we still desire gobs of treats for birthdays and useless miscellaneous toys - they're just more expensive. But then there's Josh. His birthday present was the coolest ever. His wife gave him a little bit of life. You should read his previous post too to understand his motive.

I gotta go finish some cupcakes.