Twenty-Two Seconds

I went to high school a good 45 minutes from my house.  I'm the oldest of three so, with two little sibs at home needing to be taken to the local schools, a ride was out of the question.  For the first 2 years and 2 months I took either a school bus or two trains and one bus to get me there.  The one way trip in the morning took close to 2 hours. So, from pretty much the day I turned 17, I drove.  And if the stop lights were blinking rather than doing their normal green, yellow, red thing, I knew it was early and that I was in for a long day.

I ran a half marathon today.  It was my sixth half ever and my third time running this race - its all women with an option for a full and even though I generally get along better with boys, I like the all girls races (and with the full option, if you run the half you won't come in last!).  The camaraderie is awesome.  

I had two goals for this race.  The first was to get there on time (not my forte as Sara will attest).  When I got to the first stop light it was blinking and I knew I was on pace to meet my first goal.  I also knew I was in for a long day.  In fact, it had already been a long day and it was barely 7 am.

I am not a puker.  In fact I haven't puked in well over 10 years.  And I don't get nauseous when I'm nervous (I got through grad school and a fairly big test at the end without ever feeling pukey) but I am now going to talk about puking and other bodily functions. You're warned.

I ate my oatmeal this morning, had a cup of coffee, got dressed and was relatively on time.  Decided to take one more potty break and as I was sitting there the strangest thing happened.  I got hot ... and then my mouth started to water and I had no idea going on.  But then, like some repressed memory, it came to me that this is what happens before you puke.  I quickly finished up what I was doing and got off the toilet to avoid puking into the bathtub.  And after a few minutes of sitting in front of the toilet it passed with me keeping my oatmeal.  But it was weird.  And freaked me out a bit.

And wasted some time.  I knew I could still make it though, so I decided to at least head into the city and see what happened.  I made it into the city and realized in my post almost puking frenzy I forgot my watch.  Great.

Parked.  And the race started.  Stomach still a bit off but I decided to give it a go.  At the one mile mark I asked the people around me how long we had been running so I knew how much time to deduct from the clock going forward.  One lady said 8 minutes and the other 12 so I split the difference with 10 ... that seemed about what I would be running anyway.  I geared up to take my first gel knowing that if it came up I'd call the race and head home.  It stayed down and I actually had a kind of awesome race.  I felt SO STRONG on the uphills, really pushing them and I think that is from the time on the bike.  On the downhills I would tell myself to just relax and let gravity take me ... and it did, I felt like I was flying.  Every mile was under 10 and, unless my math and memory got fuzzy mile 8-9 was around 9:15.  I ate 3 blocks at 40ish minutes and another gel at 1:10ish.  Gatorade at every stop they had it and water where they didn't.  The last 4-5 miles were COLD, I had my jacket on for the first few miles and then around my waste in case it rained but my hands were numb which was weirding me out (they just felt FUNNY) and it took a long time of being COLD before I convinced myself to untie the jacket and put it on, funny hands be damned.  That lasted less than a mile before I was hot.  I think gloves really would have been the answer because without the jacket I was cold.  

I should have had 3 more blocks at 1:40ish but that was in the middle of the last big uphill and when that passed there were only 2 miles left so I pushed on.  My ITBands were tight and I was worried that if I slowed at all to eat the blocks I wouldn't be able to pick it up again.  And, unless my initial estimate regarding the time it took me to cross the starting mat was off I was close to goal number 2 (goal number 1 in case you've forgotten, was to be on time to the race and was accomplished hours ago). 

Goal number 2 was to PR.  My second half marathon was in October of 2004 and I finished it in 2:08:18.  I trained a whole summer and then some for that half and ran it with a fast friend/running buddy (who I've since lost touch with) - I kept her in sight the whole race and finished strong.  I was doing that this race too - I traded places with a pink shirt through out the race and kept a green hat in sight the whole time - if the green hat or the pink shirt got too far ahead, I knew I had to pick it up.

Anyway, with 1 mile left I knew that as long as my first mile was 10mins or faster it would be close but possible to meet goal number 2.  Clockwise races in Central Park suck when they finish at Tavern on the Green.  The last mile is essentially a switch back and largely uphill.  You can see the finish and its deceptively close, and then you drop down into the switch back thingy and you can't see it and then you can see it again but you have to run up a hill and ... after 12.5 miles it kills you.  And for some reason this is where the horses from the horse and buggy carriages like to shit.  So in addition to being uphill torture it smells.

I ran as fast as my body would let me which sucked and hurt and I thought I was going to hurl right in front of the official photographers.  But I didn't.  I ran as fast as I could and I finished and was happy with my race because I felt strong the whole way and I knew all of my miles were sub ten.

And if I hadn't gotten pukey this morning, and I hadn't forgotten my watch I might have run TWENTY TWO SECOND FASTER and had a PR and met goal number 2.  

But, alas, I can't let twenty-two seconds ruin a good day.  Twenty two seconds is nothing really ... maybe in October at the actual 4 year anniversary of the PR.  I can't worry about it now because now? Now I'm remembering the 10-K I ran in June of 2004.  I was training for the half marathon and I ran with my same fast friend and I finished in 58:12 and I'm wondering if I ran a 10-K now .... hmmmm.

And I'm also wondering when I'll wake up if I go to sleep now and what I could eat without aggravating this weird nausea.  And for the record, it would be immaculate, so don't even ask.