Sometimes you eat the bar…and sometimes…well…

the bar eats you….

PLEASE tell me you all know what movie that is from!?!?  I’ll tell you at the end of the post if you’re curious.

I felt this way going in to my weekend because I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to make it out alive! No.  I’m kidding.  Well, sort of.

SO….I have a quick recap of the Oddyssey Half Marathon…..observations from the weekend…and more info for the upcoming week.

Hold on to your butts!

So in case you didn’t get a chance to read over my ‘Twas the Day before a Half Post….I’ll recap you with the events of the weekend (briefly)

Friday was my Dad’s Birthday – Fun times all around.  He was the focus of my Five Truth’s Friday.  yay!  His nomination for Sainthood is going through as you read this (I kid….or do I?)

Saturday was my insane day – I’m just goin’ bullet form:

• Teach Spin 715-815
• Teach Swim Lesson 9-9:30
• Take Middle School Math Praxis 1045-1245
• Pick up race packet/bib – 1-2
• Return Bridesmaid Dress 2-3
• Stop at home for delivered package
• Hang out with Busillo and get attacked by Hermes the Dog (he is satan and the cutest all in one) 🙂
• Pizza/1 Beer and chillaxing time
• Bed by 8:30 (watching Arrested Development).

Whew!

Sunday was the Day!  Oddyssey Half!  In truth – I did feel good at the start of the race but as soon as I started running, I realized I ran WAY too many miles this past week.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.

Anyway…Recap….

The morning was humid.  Cool but humid.  Race temp at the start was a cool 64.  I like it to be on the cooler side and since it’s June, I was pretty pleased. Sadly, it was the humidity that got me and made me realize (around mile 7) that I am not a Summer runner.  AT ALL.

I decided on my cute pink top and a new pair of running shorts as per Monica’s recommendation to her readers.  I wanted a pair of shorts that didn’t ride up.  The Brooks Infiniti Shorts did the trick!

Anyway – pics from the morning:

Morning Selfie – Can you tell I just woke up?  Yuck

Me and Kristie before the race – I don’t know why I have humungous legs here – they aren’t THAT big,  I swear

View from the Porto-Pottie Line – Classy, I know

View of the Start

People Behind Me at The Start

Please Touch Museum to my left

The race started a little late which always annoys me.  I am not one to be late – ever – so when things don’t start on time I get antsy.  I know, I KNOW…6 minutes isn’t that big of a deal..but still….

We were off just past 7AM.  I felt good but I could tell my quads were going to get a good workout.  Miles 1 through 3 I felt like I was running too fast.  I finally got into a bit of a groove around mile 4 but then realized I was in a groove and came out of it around mile 5.  The elevation wasn’t as bad throughout the race – most likely because I’ve been running the massive hills in my area.

Around mile 6 – a guy wearing this “thong” passed me.  At least he had a nice ass.

I kid you not

I have a list of “what I realized’s” at the end.

In truth, the run felt long but short.  Around mile 11 I was just kind of like…okay, I’m ready to be finished.  At that point to date, 10  miles was the farthest I had run in a race or training run so 13.1 was a bit of a bigger gap.

I mentioned humidity!?  Around mile 10 I could feel a blister forming on the bottom of my left foot.  And I could feel the top of my feet chafing on my sneakers.  I was sweating like a mo-fo and those puddles I mentioned about last weekend, yeah, they were back.

At mile 10.5 a guy (who had passed me earlier) in jean shorts and no shirt stopped on the side of the road to light up a cigarette.  I instinctively said, “seriously?”  and I guess because my music was so loud, he heard me say it.  I followed it up with “ridiculous” to which he then threw the cigarette down, looked back at me with his hands up in the air and kept running….ahead of me.  Hey man, whatever works for you.

It wasn’t this guy – I just wanted to put a picture here – you get the idea

I stopped to pee around mile 11 because I just couldn’t hold it any longer.  When ya gotta go, ya gotta go!  Don’t judge.  After that, I was aggravated.  The last 2 miles are on a stretch of road that is basically just nothing.  That was NOT motivating me to finish strong.  The worst part – which I think was and is incredibly rude – the last .5 mile is UP HILL.  W. T. F.

Yup – Kinda felt like this (Source)

The last time I ran this race was in 2009 and the race course was a little different OR I purposely blocked that part out of my memory – with good reason!  There were people on the side of the road as I was making my ascent and they were like “you’re almost there!”…and I shouted back “this is the worst decision ever!  I hate this race!”

I really did say that.  I did.

Another runner came up next to me and was like, “don’t walk, keep going!  It’s almost over.”  I responded back with, “This hill is rude.  I’m never running this race again.  Who puts a hill at the last .5 of a 13.1 race?”  She passed me and kept running.  I just thought to myself:

Source

But all was good in the end.  My race time said something like 1:46 and change…but I stopped my watch when I used the porta-pottie because….well I wasn’t running then.  So my Garmin says for 13.3 miles – 1:46.06.

Here are my mileage stats:

7:30/7:22/7:24/7:29/8:06/8:04/7:44/7:43/7:59/8:12/8:08/8:22/9:32 (STUPID HILL)/8:15 (last .3)

Can you tell where the hills were?

SO…It’s definitely not terrible.  The avg mile pace was 7:59/Mile.  I need to run it a bit faster for Steamtown if I am to get a really good chance at qualifying for Boston but I have PLENTY of time for that.

It’s not a PR but I am happy.  I’m tired too!

My quads were killing me from the downhill stuff – I ended up getting a massage and the lady worked some hocus pocus chinese magic on my quads!  She even put this “special chinese medicine” on my legs when she was massaging them.  I don’t know what it was but they feel magical and not like I ran a killer run this morning.

My Realized Things:

1. I am not a Summer runner – or a hot weather runner for that matter.  Humidity above 50% guarantees that I will have puddles in my shoes and a completely soaked outfit around mile 5.  Gross.
2. I will probably never run the Oddyssey again.  It’s truly that hill.  I don’t even want to sit here and say, “I am going to make that hill my bitch”.  I just don’t care enough about it.
3. As much as I liked that the race was small (less than 4K people), I didn’t like the fact that I was alone a lot – which is weird because I love to run alone.  Paradox.
4. Another reason I will probably never run Oddyssey again is because I didn’t like the race route.  There were a LOT of instances when I was running on basically desolate areas of the course.  Sure, I was close to the pack but IMHO, I didn’t really care for it.  Lots of winding and ups and downs.  Definitely not one of the better races I’ve done.
5. This was my 10th(I think? Maybe 11th?) Half marathon.  Yay.  I haven’t run a Half since last June with my friend Heather – the 1/2 Sauer 1/2 Kraut in Pennypack Park.
6. Whenever “Who Are You?” by The Who comes on my iPhone/iPod Shuffle – it’s an instant adrenaline boost and a motivating song.
7. I definitely need to train more for Steamtown.

So….that’s my recap of Oddyssey.  I’m not bummed but I’m not over joyed.  I’m just – eh.  It’s fine.  I did it and I got in on a t-shirt 🙂

Today is back to the grind….subbing then coaching….then probably to bed(it’s a rest day).  I AM TIRED!

This week is going to be jam packed!  Lots of awesome stuff coming up!  Stay tuned!

Oh, and the movie…that the quote is from….anyone guess it yet???