Thrice upon a time I have forgotten my swim pants, and only discovered this while changing at the pool. Not for a while now, but the memory is still fresh. In what turned out to be several years of foresight, I stashed a spare swimsuit in my pool bag. I knew that sooner or later I'd forget to put on my swimsuit again.
And so it was. Monday I was zooming out the door, eager to water run with my buddy Katie. It was only changing at the pool...
A quick dig in the bag rescued the swim! Yay me!
I'm still sitting at work, and my hips and butt are a bit cranky about it. Can't wait for them to get back to me about modifying the standing desk so it works for me. Tonight I was down rolling and stretching for a while, after racking some wine. I balanced on the baseball grinding into my glute for quite a while, hurting so good. It's better. Some.
I've been musing about Sunday's race. I was completely in my head, barely noticing anyone around me. Except for the people shambling along, getting in the way, weaving back and forth. There was one guy that seemed determined not to let anyone pass easily. I can appreciate we're in a big pack, and adjustments have to be made, but still.
It isn't just this race, it's almost all the races I've been in. What don't people understand about slower traffic keep right? Or checking their blind spots before swerving or stopping? I watched one woman walking along, waving her arms energetically as she chatted to her buddy, and waved them wide like saying "this big", and clotheslined someone trying to pass. Ignorant, I call it. The water stations were a complete gong show, volunteers trying to be helpful, and runners trying to dodge them, people tripping over cups. All to the constant cries of "Water" "Gatorade". Maybe this is just part of the culture, and I don't get it.
I finally broke down and looked at my pace. Assuming the porta-potty stop was at 11.5 K which seems pretty close, and I got there in 1:28, that's a 7:39 pace, which isn't terribly much slower than my regular long run pace. Especially considering all the walking I did. Then the last 9.6 K took 1:14 which is a 7:43 pace. Minus the wait time which I did not track, but I think I was actually running slightly faster. If I was in the line 4 minutes (10 people, two potties) that works out to a 7:18 pace.
It's funny you should mention people on the race course not having the best of manners. I rarely do races anymore for some of those reasons-it just gets too frustrating. I stay in the game by volunteering, cheering and supporting my friends-it's much more fun :)
ReplyDeleteI've volunteered at a bunch of triathlons, and that's about as much fun as doing them, or more. I just signed up last night for the Chinook Half for the swim start. I want to stand knee deep in water, helping the swimmers.
DeleteI've had a couple compliments on the volunteer T shirts too, which is nice. Typically only a racer will notice a race shirt, but everybody gets volunteering.