Morton Pumpkinfest 10K run: I am a worthless blubber butt!

Ok, I am ashamed to say this, but I actually met my goal today.

I decided to try my hand at running a 10K; I had a cool day and a fast course to aid me. We (Tracy, Barbara, and I) drove there together; Barbara walked the 2 miler and Tracy ran the 10K as well (1:06:10).

At the start I noticed that I was a bit too close to Bob Fuller (Religion professor at Bradley) and Lupe Marteniz, so I figured that I had to back off a bit. Still, the first mile, which consisted of a couple of long straight aways though the edges of a sleepy town and cornfields, came at 7:35. That, for my current running conditioning, is too fast. Still, the cool, foggy day was lovely for running, and I was in the "thick" of the pack.

I settled and tried to be somewhat efficient; unfortunately I have an awkward, stiff, lumbering stride. Backing off a bit, mile 2 came 7:45 later (15:22). I started to look for people to pace off of, and right then this cutie who was wearing tight, shiny spandex shorts came scooting past me. So I made a tactical decision to try to stay with her a bit.

She later told me, in a polite way, that I was, uh, rather noisy. When I try to run I pound the pavement and wheeze all over the place. I've never figured out how to be smooth while running.

I knew that mile 3 was short so I didn't really pay attention to my split; by then we had gone out well into the country and were going past the foggy corn fields. Lupe and Bob were out of sight by that time, and I was gaining on another lass who was wearing an "almost bun-hugger". I also passed by Eric, one of Barbara's former hall directors at Bradley, who said "good job" to me as I passed. I wondered aloud at how long I would last as my legs were getting heavy.

But my breathing was more labored and as I passed to mile 4 I had to walk a few steps, and the cutie got away. I got back rather quickly and hit mile 4 in 31:35; the last 2 miles took 16:15. I got back on it but couldn't regain my lost places.

The next part had us turning past some nice houses and angling toward the final straight away. I was very heavy legged and could see my goal of 50:00 slipping away. Still, I was 39:54 at mile 5 and still had a shot.

I knew that I would have a long decline to finish along, so I decided to float for the next 5 minutes and then pick it up. That seemed to work and I started to catch folks at about 45 minutes (and thought, "5 years ago, I would have been finished").

I caught Eric (who patted me on the back as I went by; I wondered aloud if I had kicked in a bit early) and managed to catch some folks who had caught me a few minutes earlier. That last straight away took forever!!! (so it seemed). I wanted to stop and walk, but I couldn't as I heard people call out my name. So I floated a few steps and then picked it up again; good thing too as I saw the clock at 49:30. I rushed in and finished in 49:47 (my watch, 49:55 clock; it took me 8 seconds to reach the start line). And felt on the verge of feeling bad. ok, I felt terrible. :-)

Nevertheless, I had made my goal (sub 50) but hadn't expected it to be this hard. Next week's marathon should go a bit smoother as I am planning on walking it.

Afterward, I met Doug from yoga class (level II on Wednesdays) and I got to talk with the cute-butted lady who I paced off of (she beat me though I could see her finish); she commented that "my running made *her* hurt!" Oh well, we can't all be graceful.
Results: http://www.ivs.org/Results/2005/Morton%2010K%20Overall.txt
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