9 Months to Tri

7:40 - Hauled myself out of bed. I’m working on a banana and some walnuts right now. I’ve still got about 2 hours before the race starts. In all honesty, I have to idea how this is going to go. I have no idea what to expect. I MIGHT see someone from ESPN’s TriTeam there, but I’m not sure. At first I had myself believing that I wouldn’t since I didn’t think that a 2 mile run would be long enough to appeal to anybody, but that was very self-centered. There’s also a 5 mile run that any one of them would find a challenge this early on in the season.

My wife and I have come up with a plan, since I still have to register and we have to deal with the issue of limited parking. We’re going to drive both cars up to the site (about 5 minutes away) and I can register my daughter and myself (she’s running the kid’s Fun Run). Then we’re leaving 1 car onsite and driving the other home. There’s a good chance that when we show up for the run, parking will be completely gone and we’ll have to park way off-site and walk it in. In that case, we’ll only hoof it once, since we can just drive right out in the car we left there this morning and pick up the other on the way out. Have I over thought this? Perhaps. I don’t know.

8:40 - Just got back from registration. It took a bit longer than I expected, so, now we’ve got to eat, dress and turn around an fly back out of here.

9:20 - my wife drops us off at the school and then has to leave to find parking. The lot has completely filled while we are out, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people milling about. A bit of a culture shock.

9:35 - My girl just ran the fun run. Looked a bit over a quarter mile. Since no one really knew the course, someone had the bright idea of dressing up like a leprechaun and running in front so that the kids would follow. Anyway, my girl got a medal for participating and seemed to enjoy it.

OK. My race. It was 9:40. My wife was standing up on a knoll near the start/finish line with our camcorder in hand (yes, I’ve got footage, but haven’t yet pieced it together). I was standing in the masses of runners in the starting area and I looked up, and right behind mom, my little girl was climbing a tree. It was cold (30s) and windy and hard to hear. I could see my kid was in trouble and my wife hadn’t yet noticed, so I jumped out of line and helped her out of the tree. She was stuck, and scared to let go, even though I had hold of her. I said, “I’ve got you. Let go NOW!” so she did, and I lowered her to the ground quickly. “Look, they’re starting without me!” and I was off, running down the hill, slipping my 260+ lb self in between bystanders and joining the group right where they cross the starting line. I was off to the sound of a couple of ladies laughing at my predicament.

I started about 3/4 of the way back, but started strong, passing a few little old ladies and some grade school kids. No problem, I thought. About a half mile in, I took off my gloves. Still going strong. Passed a group of boys running together who were being held back by a little fat kid (poor kid, I thought, I know just how you feel). Just after the 1 mile mark, the terrain began its uphill climb. Ouch. I got passed by a few guys that I had passed in the first half mile. By the time I hit the top of the hill, my arms were freezing, out of breath, and wondering if maybe I should walk the rest of the hill like the dozens of people I had just passed. I didn’t stop, though. Pushed thru it all, and finished the last 3/4 of the race a bit slower than I had started.

10:00 - As I came around the final bend to the finish line, I heard my little girl yelling “There’s daddy! I see daddy!” Nothing could have sounded sweeter to me. I wanted NOT to finish last, and I guess I didn’t. However, I didn’t finish top 3 in my age group which I wasn’t really shooting for, but it would have been nice. I was 180th out of 261. When I later told my girl that I was 180th, she said she had thought so, since so many people had finished before me.

I finished the 2 miles in 20:13. That’s 10:07 per mile. I froze the second mile. I’m not sure I could have done a 3rd mile, but I’ll soon try for that, too.

A bit later, the 5 Mile racers started their race, and to my surprise, I saw Mike running with his dog (yes, i have footage of that, too). As I was waiting around for the results of my race, the 5 milers started to come in. Mike, as I recall, was in the top 12 finishers. 5 miles in 30 minutes. That’s roughly 6 minute miles.

There was all sorts of free food there. Dunkin Donuts showed up with donuts and coffee. The organizers had provided water and sliced oranges, and The 99 Restaurant was serving grilled hot dogs and chowder. The dogs and chowder smelled really good, but I just could get past the damage I would be doing now that I had just ran 2 very fast miles. So, water and oranges for me. Perfect!

Turns out our little parking plan worked out well, too, since my girl was too cold to sit out and wait for race results and the like. They took my car from the school parking lot, and about 35 minutes later, after the race results had been announced and the 5 milers had come back, I walked the 3/4 mile to where my wife ended up parking her car. There was a flier on the front of my car for a 1/4 marathon next weekend. Yeah, right. I’ll hold off that for now. I’m not sure I can triple my distance in one week.

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