Monday, December 1, 2008

Great River Road Race Report - or Happy Birthday to ME!!

Holy long title, Batman!

After totally blowing it on Thanksgiving, even though I had a plan to keep my eating in check... I proceeded to shop away the day AFTER Thanksgiving, getting a late start (thus avoiding the worst of the crowds) and getting a big chunk of my Christmas shopping done.

Saturday, 11/29 was my 35th birthday and the day of the Great River Road 10 mile race. The race was an out-and-back, right along the Mississippi River. I had signed up on Wednesday, along with a couple of friends. They tried (a little) to talk me out of it, but I figured I could at least have a healthy START to my day.

When Saturday arrived, I did NOT want to run 10 miles. Ugh! What was I thinking?? I tried to talk THEM out of it after we had already arrived at the race. But, alas, it was too late. We were doomed to run it.

I am SO glad that we did! At the start, it was about 40 degrees. This would normally be shorts weather for me. But, the race was right along the RIVER for crying out loud. And, I was COLD! So, I wore pants and a lightweight long sleeve shirt.

On the way out, it was SO HOT! I thought I had overdressed. I enjoyed the out-and-back, because we could see the frontrunners on their way back. Angie and I ran together, with Barbie taking off and beating us by almost 30 minutes. Gah!

At the turnaround, I was glad to be "overdressed". We ran the last 5 miles into a headwind. I wasn't there to "race". I hadn't ran since 11/16 (are you surprised?). Before that, I ran on 11/8 and 11/1. I was just there to run 10 miles. Or walk. Angie drug me through the last couple of miles, and we wound up running it in an 'official' time of 1:47:15. Not great, but I was fine with it.

Here are a couple of shots of Angie and I at the finish:




Afterward, we went out for Mexican (of course) and a couple of glasses of wine (of course).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday and great job!

You should be very proud of yourself!

Viv said...

Happy belated Birthday Tammy!

What a great way to celebrate with a 10miler and mexican food!

raulgonemobile said...

Great job!

Happy Birthday, too!

RooBabs said...

Happy Birthday!! Wahoo! What a great way to celebrate. Isn't it weird how wind or humidity can totally change the temperature?

Glad that you had fun, and thank you because now I am craving Mexican food for lunch (and it's barely after 10 a.m. here)!

On a separate note, there is a Jingle Bell 5k here this weekend, but it's in the evening (of the 5th) and I'll be at my sister's dance performance- her first solo- so I won't be doing the run. Will you be wearing bells for your run?

Kelly said...

Happy Birthday Tammy! Great job!