"race report"

Well, today was the ill-fated half marathon. It was 10 degrees when we left the house, probably 15 during the race, and me with this stupid boot that leaves my toes sticking out. I wore a cycling sock, a big wool sock that's supposed to go with work boots, a plastic bag, and one of Nate's regular white socks. And my toes were quite toasty, which cannot really be said for the rest of me.

I, of course, did not do the half marathon. I saw the others off, then waited around for the start of the 5k fifteen minutes later. And while I positioned myself way in the back of the pack, somehow there were a couple hundred people behind me again by the time the gun went off, and I almost got trampled to death.

I ended up in a loose group of about 10-15 people that were walking. I've never done a walking event before. A few of them had a flask of some kind of schnapps that they were passing around. A couple others were head-butting each other in the stomach as they went. These things don't happen when you're actually running the thing, even if you're looking at a 26 or 27 minute time like I usually am. So it was pretty funny.

The thing I didn't think of, of course, was the difference in height between the sole of the Big Black Boot and the sole of my running shoe. I had a huge imbalance in my hips, and I paid for it. My left hip still hurts. I will not be signing up for any more 5Ks until I can take this thing off. But it was worth it to do it once.

The end of the course features a one-block steep hill, followed by a gradual incline up to the finish. At the base of the hill I figured what the hell, I can pretend it's a race for a little bit, so I motored up that hill as fast as I could hobble. Which is pretty fast if I say so myself. I passed several people on the hill, and then several more on the false flat of the last few hundred yards. Three different people said "Man, the girl with the cast is passing us!" I had a distinct advantage, of course, in that the other walkers were walking because they were too out of shape to run, so it wasn't very fair, but I giggled every time I heard it anyway.

Of course they had an announcer at the finish, hollering out names and things, and this was being broadcast throughout the building where all the other participants were drinking coffee and eating bananas. I entered the finishing chute to the sound of "This is amazing, ladies and gentlemen, this is just incredible! She is crossing the finish line and she is wearing a cast!" I waved like a celebrity, and everyone who was standing around the finish line turned to see me.

I don't know what my time was. I think probably 47 minutes. The clock said 1:02 something, which confused me because that would be a pretty leisurely walk, but it turned out the 5k wasn't even being timed and that was the clock for the half marathon. (The first finisher of that race showed up about five minutes after I did.)

I got some free coffee, picked up my mug, and wandered around being accosted by random people who wanted to know if I actually ran with "that thing" on. Around 1:40 I went outside to wait for Nate and Scott to finish, and they showed up right on their target time of 1:45. And then the three of us waited for Sascha to finish, and then we went to some diner on Lyndale and stuffed ourselves with pancakes whether we had run 13 miles or walked 3. In fact, I ate more than either Sascha or Scott, and possibly also more than Nate. I should probably ride the trainer for a couple hours now to atone for that, I guess, but.... nah.

Uh oh, my computer is making strange noises. Better hurry up and post!