We had a BLAST!!! Of course it didn’t seem like it was going to go that way to begin with. I was kinda worried about the thing all week, mostly because Ean didn’t train much and he had to work the night before. The funny thing is when he got home from work Friday night, I was still awake with a bad case of pre-race jitters. I just couldn’t calm myself down to go to sleep. I ate a big meal of carbs (deer spaghetti) and washed it down with a Jim and Coke mixed drink...but alas...no sleep. I think I finally fell asleep around 11:45PM. The alarm went off at 4:00AM and I hit the snooze once and jumped out of bed when it went off again at 4:15AM. I showered, got ready, ate a small bowl of oatmeal and woke up Ean. We left home at 5:06AM. The sun was coming up as we went over the bridge and it was beautiful. Another great photo opportunity missed!
I was one of the first ones to pick up my race packet for the morning. There wasn’t a line for the restroom...which was great since I was about to bust because I had drank a cup of coffee and a container of water on the way down. Ean had slept all the way there and didn’t wake up any happier when we got there than he was when we left the house. He had not one iota of excitement. He said he wasn’t getting out until the race started at 8:15AM. I finally convinced him he better get in line if he wanted to use the restroom and we got out of the truck at 7:45AM. After standing in line to use the portapotty and getting our business done, we tried to figure out where we should line up. In our race packet it showed 3 zones: Zone 1 for competitive racers, Zone 2 for average runners, and Zone 3 for walkers and baby strollers. I knew from my other two races we did NOT want to get stuck behind the baby strollers...unless they were jogger strollers...I’ve been passed by them several times! Anyway, there was excitement in the air, loud music playing, people walking around in funny costumes and it was COLD, very cold. I had to keep bouncing around to stay warm. When the call came to line up for the race, I figured we would be safest between Zone 2 and Zone 3....but they didn’t have the zones marked so it was hard to figure out where to go. Since there were over 6,000 participants the start was very slow. It seemed like 5 minutes had passed by the time we made it to the starting line and could start running. I told Ean, “Don’t try to go too fast in the beginning, just jog at an easy pace because that bridge is going to be a Killer!” I told him to tell me if he needed to stop and take a walk break. I could hear him hassling behind me and I was worried how this was going to end. We took a walk break a little before mile 1 but I only let him take 1 minute and 30 sec and then we got back to running. Now, technically I’m not sure you can call my little turtle trot (that’s what Ken calls it) a run. I’m not even sure if it is classified as a jog but it serves me well. I know how to pace myself. We took another little break almost to the top of the bridge, to stop and snap a couple of pics and then we were on the move again. The down hill was the best because all you had to do was relax and let gravity do the hard work. There was a little bit more of an incline on the off ramp and then we were in downtown Savannah. We passed the Thunderbird hotel and then I started to pick up my pace. Ean had figured out the best way for him to run it was to run ahead and then I would catch up with him on his walk breaks, because my legs felt better if I stayed in running position and didn’t walk. So he was ahead of me. I figured when I picked up my pace that I would catch up to him and we would cross the finish line together. But, guess what? Ean picked up the pace too. When we hit the straightaway to the finish line, he was running all out...I was afraid he would pass out. The crowd was yelling and ringing the cowbells and it was just an awesome feeling! I was running all out by that time too and ended up finishing 11 sec behind him. His time was 41:26 and mine was 41:37. I think that was excellent for his first 5K, especially one with a mile of it on a 5% incline! I was so proud of him. The first thing he said to me when I caught up to him was, “When are you doing another one because I want to do it too! ” Maybe I’ve finally converted one of my guys into a runner.
I’ve only done three 5Ks this year, but this was my BEST experience yet. I’m not sure if it was because Ean was with me or because my body felt so up to the task. I trained properly ahead of time by doing hill repeats and 4 mile LSRs. It was a very good run and I look forward to doing the 10K next year!
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