Come run my long birthday run with me / Shoe winner

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!” 

Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Yep, today's the big day.  I'm not off to great places, at least not today, 

but that big mountain's waiting ... so a long run's in order, no time to play.

55 degrees and mostly cloudy to start

Springtime blooms brought watery eyes and dripping nose waaaay off the chart

Had to leave in angry green coat woman on the right in the picture; she told me to stop hogging the whole bike
lane while I took a picture.  Didn't she know it was my birthday and I am allowed to hog the lane?

One of my favorite urban long runs along the Cherry Creek path

Where I can sometimes hop on some dirt to give my legs a brisk relief from concrete's angry wrath

A little recent rain left the creek water high

But dead legs from too much weight training the day before left my destination point a wee-bit shy

But downtown I made it and then turned around

Miles cut short, only 17 done.  Last 6 were absolutely no fun.  

Legs dead.  Feet shred.

Head hurt.  Shoulders burnt.

But it was my birthday

And if you remember this post from last year (HERE)....

I am RUNNING

So I absolutely shed NO NO NO frown

Okay, well I suck at rhyming, obviously, but I wanted to turn what was not a very good long run today into something a bit more fun, so there ya go.  I am a bit discouraged that I continue my streak of miserable long runs, but truly, I am really grateful to be running.  And not only running, but running pain-free.  A year ago I wasn't. I'll keep plugging away.

And since I'm on roll of really horrible long runs, I just so happened to have a one at the half marathon last weekend.

A few of the more memorable highlights:

• Weather forecast the night before called for 5" of snow and freezing rain at the start.  I packed at least 20 different layers of clothes in my car the night before so I could assess what to wear when I got there, dreading how cold it was going to be.
• Stood at the start line in shorts and short sleeves with 55 degree sunny skies.

Ran into this lovely blogger, Julie, before the start

• Didn't wear my Garmin, which I normally don't do in a race.  I felt "off" from the start and couldn't find the first 2 mile markers to get my pace and I feared I was going too fast.
• Mile 3 confirmed I was going not only too fast, but way too fast.
• Mile 5 the winds picked up and it was insane.  And hard!  I started hovering behind a guy for a couple miles (I am really good at doing this :)) until I knew I was annoying him, indicative of how many times he turned around and looked over his shoulder at me.  Gave him up at mile 7 and repeated the hovering with someone else.  
• Repeat above every mile.
• Thought constantly how this would be my last race in my 40's and how good it would be to turn 50 and get out of this highly competitive age group I'm in.
• Got home and realized I'm only 48 (49 today).
• Started the dreaded death march about mile 9.
• I lost my hat at one point.  Did I mention how windy it was?
• Finished with a micro-hair sub-9 minute mile (1:57:32).    
• 6 minutes slower than last October on almost no training.  13 and a half minutes slower than my 1:44 PR. BLEH!!
• Almost froze to dead waiting a half hour for the "F" train back to the start area, because that's what my ticket said:

• There is no F train.  Really.  
• So this where my current fitness level is right now, apparently.  Not where I want it, so I just gotta shut the heck up and make the time to and get my 50-year old body :) in gear!

Lastly, the winner of the Ahnu shoe giveaway is... (I so wish I could give you all a pair, seriously!  I don't like to do giveaways often because I always enter these things and never ever win and it's NO fun at all and you all deserve them!):

Raina: Small Town Runner

Congrats girl.  Email me!!

Congratulations, too, to all those Boston runners who endured such horrific weather conditions, I salute you guys!  One day I'll write about my Boston experiences, perhaps; they definitely had their challenges for each I ran, but nothing like the heat of 2012!

Okay, that's a wrap!  I have a big 5k this weekend.  Let's see if the suckfest can continue.

And seriously guys, did everyone's birthday present to me get lost in the mail?  I will have to go have a little chat with the mailman.  In the meantime...

Run strong, my friends!