From the Marathon to the 5K

With Brendan. I may not have the costume, but I'm sporting the right colors!

This post will have to be short; I am suppose to be packing for a few days away during our fall break....though that plan is sort of up in the air as I type; Ryan is not feeling well. He came home from school and looked really pale (the child is about as pasty-white as they come so anything whiter is kind of ghostly looking). I sent him to bed with some Advil and some Gatorade, went with his twin brother, Brendan, to the Halloween 5K and upon my return (much later than I wanted, had to drop Abbey off at DU but had to make a quick detour to the mall first. Bad mom!), he was running a slight fever. Eeeeerrrrrrrr! We're suppose to take off tomorrow about 7a.m. but will postpone that until a little later in the morning to see how he fares. Called my aunt, who is traveling with us, to inform her that plans were either 1) we'd go later in the morning with Ryan if Ryan is feeling better, 2) we'd wait and go on Sunday and then skip a day of our trip or 3) we'd head out later on Saturday, without Ryan (he will have to stay with his dad) and come home on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I have clothes literally thrown into a corner with no sense of order, and most likely logic, so I may be up a bit later than I hoped.

My boys and I were suppose to run this Halloween 5K tonight; we ran it last year and they enjoyed it. I am convinced I will NEVER like the 5K. I remember Matt from our relay team telling me that the 5K is the worst race ever invented. I full-heartily agree!!! It sucks the lung right out of me...and I'm not kidding about that. I seriously think I have some sort of exercise-induced asthma or something cuz honestly, I cannot stop coughing and feel like I just can't get enough air in me! Anyway, Brendan and I headed to Wash Park for the race, sans Ryan, and picked up Abbey from DU along the way. Traffic was a total nightmare; I don't know how anyone drives in that mess on a daily basis. Drives. Me. Mental! So we got there kinda late due to the sea of traffic on I-25 but all was good, we had time to get us registered. Tons of decked out costumes. I'm not creative, and I can't run in anything "fun" - I once wore a green pony-tail holder with tons of ribbons in it for a St. Patty's run, and it bothered me the whole time I ran. Ha. So my orange shorts and black shirt had to suffice for Halloween "attire" - I think it worked well.

Though I can't help but think those orange shorts are jinxed! They failed me on one of my timed miles this summer - so much so, I never even finished that mile and DNF'd at 800 (a horrible day the day before left me sporting a heavy-heart still at scheduled 5a.m. run the next morning; just couldn't feel it). They didn't do a lot of good today for me either. But I'm okay with it. Sorta. I really thought I could run faster...and maybe I can, maybe it was just a barrage of things and the planets were all mis-aligned; I'm not sure but I crossed with a 23:10. ugh.

The following is not a list of excuses, I don't believe in them. This is just what was.

I had a horrible headache after that lovely traffic I got to endure for 40 minutes (what is normally a 20 minute drive). My left shoulder is acting up again. My left hamstring and glute are just tighter than cello strings! But the largest hindrance working against me is that I just can no longer run a 5K at a decent speed. Oh, and if you read my last blog about mastering the "take off too fast and then die at the end" game, well I'm here to report that I have not faltered from the rules of this game, no sirree! My goal was to run about 7 minute miles. Mile 1: 6:43 (ta-dah!!!). Mile 2: 7:33 (um, really? Cuz it felt like a 6 min/mile). I made the mistake of grabbing some water here and after I took a very small drink, that went down the wrong pipe, I had to really slow down because I was, honest to God, not getting any air in me for about 10 seconds! Mile 3: 7:42 (oh yeah, paying for that first mile quite nicely now). Coughed constantly. Played hop-scotch with a guy for the entire race. Somehow I managed to run past and stay ahead of him as we passed the 2 mile marker but rounding the last .1 mile corner in my slower than snail's pace, he passed me to claim his Jill vs. the-blond-guy-in-the-blue-shorts trophy. Yeah, I got this going out too fast game down pretty darn well - I challenge anyone to just try and beat me. Good thing that I don't really give a crap about 5K's. Well, that's not totally true, I would like to run them faster, but that's not my goal right now and I'll just use this little race as some much-needed speed work!

Maybe one day I may work on speedier races (thought I somehow doubt it) but in the meantime, I had a blast running with Brendan and will take advantage of doing these races with them whenever my boys want to give 'em a shot. And the fact that Abbey was there...well, that was just extra special cake icing for sure. It doesn't matter that I may have coughed up a lung; I got to spend time with the most special people in my life doing the thing I love most (but if they'd just try a 1/2 marathon instead of a 5K, then that'd just be oh so much sweeter!!)