Our journey started early.. we were up by 4:45 am.. no wait let me rephrase that.. I was up at 4:45 am...and by 5:30 am we were on our way to Havre de Grace, Maryland....for our MOM/DAUGHTER RACE.....no problem.. if you were the 23 year old sleeping for the hour and a half drive...
So we get there around 7:00 am which secured us a good parking spot and gave us a chance to get our race packets and bib numbers without waiting in lines... my bib number was lucky number 13..
I needed to warm up a bit and told heather that I was going to take a bit of a jog about to wake up the muscles... asked if she wanted to come along... I don't think she needed to answer.. but the look said it all.. OK, I will be back.. she was going to nap in the truck a bit.. must be nice to be 23!
So I noticed my back was a LOT of a bit stiff.. I wonder if it was the drive, or yeah hauling 20 bags of mulch the day before... so I slap some Bengay on my back..and off I go..... what a pretty morning.. and I love love LOVE running by the water... the race takes place right at the corner of a park in Havre de Grace with fantastic views of the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay...
...PEACE AND HARMONY... by the time I got back to the truck... I was panting... sweating.. and a mess.... OH BOY we are in trouble!!!.. this was only the tip of the heat wave that would take over the day.
My back still felt a bit sore... so what do I do?... put on MORE Bengay of course... … note to self.. NO PUT ON Bengay on already hot back... my back went on FIRE.. like someone held a blow torch to it .... I started jumping up and down and was like AHHHHHHHH.... heather my back is on fire.. OMG …!!!
Unimpressed with my concerns that I may internally combust.... she just yawned and said, "Stop complaining".. I wanted to slap Bengay on her face…
So we line up.. 400 women in race.. a flowing stream of women and girls...... Heather and I line up on the front line.. YOU BET.. pretend you are great and just maybe you will fool the others.. seemed to work for me.. . and off we go... I tried really hard not to go out too fast... but again clocked some stupidly ridiculous number in the first half mile... but I get to first mile in around 7.11….
.. a youngster.. I am guessing.. 12-14-years old?... thin as a rail... girl... cut me off at a corner…run right over me... . she absolutely most certainly cut in front of me to take the corner sharp.. its NOT like you can't see the giant ole hag with the large thighs coming... this caused me to have to back step and lose some momentum... I was NOT happy..
I was purposely trying to take the tangents of the course because they had informed us that the course was a smidgen long.. 3.14 to be exact..instead of 3.1 ...like I guess I should not worry about and an extra 0.04 ....but I need all the help I can get.. so I cut into every corner I could…guess she had the same idea...
So I jockeyed for position and realizing she is purposely countering each of my moves... I shot across the road away from her.. and she somehow gravitated back towards me.... like HELLO!!!...OK.. so lets all feel sorry for the young girl on the course.. BULL SH-T!!!.. she knows exactly what she is doing... I cant believe she is trying to put the moves on this old hag! And I just can't be mean.. and she KNOWS IT!!!..Wendy learn to not let “innocent” youngsters get to you...
Going up to mile 2 there is a slight incline and usually my slowest mile on this course.. this year same thing.. but even slower.. I got to mile two in 15.30..I knew then I was NOT making my goal finish time of in the 22's (as I would need to be in the 14's on mile 2)… but I didn’t get discouraged .. I just kept saying to myself.. this is really painful.... but keep it up....DEAL WITH IT!
I tried to push it the last mile.. because the last mile is really flat and easy but I just could NOT get the legs moving any faster.... and I started to feel the heat and humidity.... people were starting to drop like flies.. I passed two people walking who were ahead of me.. one was in spandex pants.. ARE YOU KIDDING!!!!! ...who runs in spandex when it's 70 degrees and 89% humidity?????....I would have blow up.. in a giant puff ball.. the medics would have had to throw my flaming body in ice... just to be able to touch me...
Oh.. and then justice is SERVED... I passed the little twit that cut me off.. she was walking.. SO sad... aw.......
Screw you... little... b-tch.. (I KNOW I AM SOO GOING STRAIGHT TO H-LL).... so I am realizing that I am now SUPER concentrating on trying to finish when with a half mile to go.. two women pass me.. UGH... and one was in my age group I later find out.. can't do much about it.. at peak race pace for me right now…
Hit mile 3 at 22.50 something… not as good as last year, ugh… last 100 meters I tried to sprint.. I almost caught the b-stards that pass me but not enough juice left ... ended up 23.47… I will take it… not as good as last year's 23.20 something… but d-mn ok with it for now!!!! I AM DONE running and thats it... !
I waited for poor heather to come in.. she came in around 25 something.. I couldn’t talk to her for 10 minutes after the race because all I got was, “I am NEVER EVER running again..E-V-E-R… and don’t EVER sign me up for anything like this again!”..…
GREAT mother daughter bonding experience..
BUT alls well that ends well.. by the time my internal body temperature normalized and I stopped melting everything I touched and she stopped feeling like she was going to heave, we checked the results... and were pleasantly excited to find out we placed 2nd Mother Daughter team.. AND... she placed third in her age group (20-24)... AND I placed first in my age group (40-44).. (thankfully they took out top three woman -there was a 40 year old in the top 3.. and then top three masters.. I think there was a 40 year old there too)..
Makes it all worth while....
...so we go to accept our awards and they give us something that looked like a cross between is it a metal buoy.. or missile?... (come to find out later they are water bottles).. we smiled.. and got pictures with them... and once we walked away Heather was like, “I can't believe I killed myself for a freaking water bottle”…
(see last year they gave us a really nice plaque with mom daughter 2nd place on it.. this water bottle did not have anything on it but the race name.. no way to determine what place we won or what we won... and we got the same exact water bottle for our age group placings…)
So now we have TWO no wait FOUR ugly stupid water bottles.. and they are too big to hold when we run.. and we already have 30 plus water bottles.. so I think I will keep one for display and the others use for target practice... or as buoys for the crab traps down at the beach..
Everyone should spend time with their kids...
Women’s By The Bay 5K 2009 Race Results
