brookhaven bolt 2010 & my runiversary

I guess you can call this my runiversary. this time last year, i laced up for my first run in over a year to begin training for the Nike women’s half marathon with team in training. yes, you read that right. i went into a 5k to start training. i went into a 5k 100% unprepared but because i just wanted to do it. i remember thinking ehh how hard can 3.1 miles be?! Well, I remember it not being easy, the hills kicking my butt, and being thankful that I ran into friends that I could walk with …i cannot fully remember how long my first ever Brookhaven Bolt and first ever 5k took me, but I feel like it was pushing 40 minutes.

I decided to celebrate the event/day with running the Brookhaven Bolt again this year and had many hopes that I would have a better showing. Well… I kinda did, I was no where near happy with my performance as I hope to be, but the day started off a bit rough.  I overslept.  My alarm went of at 6:30 am – M-F Alarm – and I hit dismiss thinking I could rely on Kyle’s alarm… the one he never turns off until this weekend!  Yikes.  I woke up at 7:18 for a 8:00 start.  Thank god I slept in my running shorts & sports bra.  Threw on a shirt, popped in the contacts, brushed my teeth, threw my hair in a pony tail, grabbed my shoes, and ran out the door. A sign that this was going to be a mess of a race was when I parked my car, got out, passed a volunteer on her cell phone, and then was chased down to say I couldn’t park there.  Why wasn’t I told when I got out of my car, oh oh because she was too busy chatting it up with a girlfriend. As I got up to the packet pickup table the disorganization really started.  I waited in line and as I moved up and got to the front the table workers greeted a group of 5 who just walked up and cut the line. Whatever. Fine. But then another volunteer walked up and approached the person BEHIND ME! With a hello flip of my hands the table finally noticed the 5’9” runner in hot pink.  I grabbed my number, put it on my shorts and went to warm up… a little irritated and thinking to myself “I knew I should have pulled into Big Peach on my way home to get my number”.   As I am warming up I see a car of volunteers driving the wrong way down the road into a mass of runners and another volunteer running to the car screaming YOU CANNOT GO THAT WAY!! I shake my head and I slink to the start line and realized that my Garmin, which I pulled in last night did not charge.  so with 34% life left, I prayed that it would make it through the race.

My frustrations really got high after the race started.  I like to consider myself a mid-packer, not the fastest but also not the slowest so I tend to line up in the middle.  Well, the runners had a 8:00 start and the baby joggers had an 8:05 start at the back.  Imagine my surprise to find baby joggers walking with all the runners and said baby joggers were impossible to pass. (couldn’t race volunteers enforce the baby joggers in back thing!?)  On top of the baby joggers I felt sandwiched in with the moms who wanted to walk for the school & gossip so I had to pick them off one by one and swerve everywhere to get around them. I was trying to find my groove & settle into my run only to have to walk .13 miles in. annoyed.  On top of everything it was really hot and really humid and with water advertised at mile 1 and 2 and I was longing for some water.  Mile 1 comes, no water, mile 1.10 no water, 1.20 no water.  I am at this point thinking ok, note to self, if I do this race again next year it is BYOW (bring your own water).  So I get to mile 1.35 or something and there is the water station with the water cups filled just enough for 1 gulp, no where near enough water to begin to hydrate.  Same thing went for the mile 2 water stop and by 2.34 miles I wanted/needed to vomit since I had sweat everything out… thank god for mile 2.4 something at the Post Properties girls and their water stop.  Midway through the race I was at 15 minutes so I really thought that I had the chance to PR.  Ehh.. not so much.  The start of mile 2 is when I body quit and wanted no more and it became a fight with my brain to just keep moving and run.  I was sweaty, thirsty, felt like I needed to vomit, and just a hot mess.  Mile 2 was spent mainly walking up the hilly back end of the course (per the elevation map thanks to Garmin Connect, the slow up hill climb to Ashford Park started at 1.49 miles and we just went up and up and up, with a few small downhills).  Near the finish, I was stopped by a volunteer to let a car out of their driveway … I do not know why I thought that I had the right away, I was mistaken I guess, but a 30 or so seconds later of standing there, not moving I was okayed to continue on...  The hunt for water at the end was awful too.  Spectators and previous race finisher had taken 3,4 cold iced water bottles leaving everyone else with hot gross Fiji water bottles.  I have never wanted my AC blaring car more than I did this morning.

The disorganization was just too much for me and I honestly do not think I will be adding this 5k to my 2011 calendar.  It made me wonder if the race director was even a runner or had participated in other local races to get a feel for how a race was to run.  Last year I thought it was a great event, but then I became a runner and was able to compare this one to others and yikes.   …or maybe I should just stick to big 5ks, 10ks, and half & full marathons, they are just run so much better.

Race Stats:

Mile 1: 9:56 pace

Mile 2: 11:25 pace

Mile 3: 13:03 pace

.1: 9:28 pace

Finishing Time: 35:23 – not a PR but also not a PW.

Overall Pace: 11:24

i have accomplished SO much in 1 year.  I am getting faster. I have run 2 half marathons and 1 full marathon. I have begun to realize that “just getting out there and running” is not enough. I have started to incorporate cross training. I guess I am able to call myself a runner.

So, happy 1 year to me… I am excited for another year of one foot in front of the other right left right left.