(Note: I am in a foul mood so this is gonna be sarcastic, angry and negative. Some tears might be shed. I’ll probably feel bad later and delete it… So if you want to slit your wrists at the end of this, sorry, my bad.)
Pre-race:
1. Got up at 4:15 and left the house by 4:45. Took an hour to get to Long Beach and parked. Logistics were a nightmare; too many people, too small of a space. Roads were all backed up and clogged. Reminds me of a certain toilet… Want to start biting people already.
Not angry yet…
More crap to take to the race.
2. Want to punch who ever had the stroke of brilliance to have a “bike tour” in the middle of a half and full marathon. I’m all for exercise, but go ride your beach cruiser with the wicker basket somewhere else, you Lance Armstrong wannabe.
3. Then they had the walkers start an hour early. Yeah, I know they need more time, but that meant all the runners had to weave around the Big Berthas who were doing a speedy .5 mph and acted all offended when they had to occasionally stop hogging the entire path.
4. Mad at the city of Long Beach because the route was super boring. Do you really think I want to run by the (albeit beautiful) Pacific Ocean for miles and miles? You don’t even know me, Long Beach, do you?!
My throw-away sweater. I actually got it back at the end of the race which should make me happy, but I didn’t want it in the first place.
Race eats:
1. Before the race I had an Espresso Love Gu and a sample packet of Gu chompers (190 cals total). I had a Clif bar but it was so old it looked like a petrified fossil and tasted even worse. So I spit it out and went with the gels. Now the owners of Clif bars are definitely on my hate list.
2. Had another EL Gu at mile 6 and then they were handing out Vanilla Gu at mile 10 so I had one of those. Mad because they weren’t handing out Red Robin fries. Is it rocket science?
3. I also had either water or gatorade at every water station. I did water at one, then gatorade the next… looked for the mimosa station but of course couldn’t find it.
After the race at my car in full on “hate the world” mood now.
The real reason I’m cranky:
My hip/thutt/right leg started to ache around mile 7 and just intensified and continued until I was done running. I thought about stopping and stretching it, but I just wanted to be done so I kept going. I’M SO FRUSTRATED that I’m still dealing with this!!!! I want to be healthy and run without pain. That’s it. Ok, and a pair of Loeffler Randall boots. But that’s it.
Maybe I’m pushing too hard; it’s been about 6 weeks since I re-started running, but I’m so over this craptastic injury. When I was walking to the car, a guy asked me if I was injured and ok because I was limping so bad. This is what I think of that:
Whatever. I am going to take a couple days off and hopefully will have less pain because I have another half next weekend in San Francisco.
Things that made me happy less wanting to kick someone in the shin:
1. We got cupcakes, bananas, and jocalat bars after the race which I gave to some homeless people. They were all geeked up about it, at least the girl who got the cupcake was.
2. I PR’ed: 1:42:08. 484 overall and 88th woman.
