My friend Mark reached out to me when he saw where I was in Florida and told me about a 5K he was timing in Vero Beach and asked if I wanted to run it. Since it was being held at one of the exclusive, gated golf and country clubs around here I thought sure — why not!
I clicked on the link to the Quail Valley Golf Club and got the address — about 4 miles from our house, I thought about running there to make today my long run. Also made note of (what I thought was) the start time — 8:30 AM. Bryan asked me what time I wanted to leave this morning and I said 7:45 was plenty of time. He thought the race started at 7:30, and also thought it was somewhere else but I showed him the address and continued on my usual morning routine of coffee, answering emails and the like.
About 7:15 he asked me for the address so he could put it in his gps, I went to get it and realized the race actually started at 7:30! Crap . . . . . I’ve never done that before. Felt badly and figured what the heck I could dress and get there in 10 minutes. Even if I missed the start by a few minutes, what difference did it make? So, off we went — leaving the house at 7:20AM. Arrived at the gated Quail Valley Golf Course only to be told the race is at the Quail Valley River Golf Course, and that was about 20 minutes away. Well, we were both dressed so we figured we’d go and at least enjoy the post-race festivities. Arrived at the Quail Valley River Golf Course and saw the course signs, etc, but no runners. I got out and went to check in to apologize for missing the race. The gentleman was very understanding of my confusion, Bryan came back from parking the car and I thought I might as well go run and get in a workout. When I got to the start area I saw the timing people so I introduced myself and said how much I appreciated Mark registering me and apologized for being a dumb ass.
The gentleman doing the timing said hey, it’s a chip timed race, cross the starting line and we’ll get your accurate time so I figured what the heck and off I went. No bathroom stop, no warm up, hadn’t even remembered my race belt so I was carrying my number in my hand. Can anyone tell me why since I was already 20 minutes late I didn’t pin on my number and the like before starting? Well, it’s a nice way to run a 5k with no pressure! I just worried a bit about following the course alone but it was well marked and I started to catch up with some walkers fairly soon. I was afraid to try to push as I know my body doesn’t really do well if I try to run fast without warming up. I had also had a pretty awful run yesterday. So I decided I’d just enjoy the run, follow the arrows and then follow the walkers to the finish. I ended up finishing at just under 29 — not bad for a three mile warm up run, and nothing hurt!
I went right over to the timer to let him know my actual time, just to avoid any later issues. He told me no worries — they had other problems. Seems the lead cyclist had led a bunch of people off course and they ran about 4 miles. For a while, my name was on the results as finishing in 19 minutes, which was actually when I started. I immediately crossed my name off, didn’t want anyone to think that was my correct time!
One thing about a race at a private country club . . . . . . they had the nicest water stop setup and post race food. Waiters were staffing the tables in white collared shirts, with nicely arranged fruit, muffins and Twinings tea. Not your usual box of bagels and fruit for sure. Bryan and I wandered around for a while, checking out the yachts and such. I won a nice thermal water bottle for winning my age group. A fun morning for sure, in spite of being totally unprepared to run this morning, I am very glad that Mark asked me if I wanted to participate and I’m very glad we went in spite of being so late!
Hopefully I’ve gotten all the mistakes out of the way for the season, and that all my races end up as positive as today.
I headed off to the pool next to get in a 10,000 meter swim week. Felt great and mixed up my practice with the tempo trainer and some real focus on my arms — weightless, painting and holding straight lines, opening my axilla and focusing on that split second of a good catch. I thought the pool may be crowded since it was Saturday and the sun was out. There was four totally empty lanes — swimmers heaven! I noted a slight improvement in my stroke count vs. tempo today, and times were a bit more consistent. All in all I was pleased with my practice and I’ve noticed that the 50 meter lap doesn’t feel quite as long any more. The pool is closed tomorrow, I’m going to try to set up my video camera on deck on Monday and try to get some video so I have an idea of what my stroke looks like. These two weeks have been a lot of swimming for me, my only gauge right now is that nothing hurts.
We’ve had a couple of great dinners. Bryan spotted a recipe on Facebook and showed it to me. Since it’s from my favorite blog I tried it last night. All I can say is if you haven’t already you absolutely have to make the Almost 5 Ingredient Pizza Spaghetti Pie. As Bryan loves to say . . . . . “it’s to die for!” We used fire roasted diced organic tomatoes plus a cup of sauce, pork sausage and 5 italian cheese mix. Tonight’s dinner was a repeat, another new favorite — Chicken Apple Sausage and Brussels Sprouts. Almost two weeks of clean eating and Bryan and I are both feeling pretty good, and Brody is loving all his healthy snacks.
Something else I’d like to include here, there are lots of links and posts to stuff on Facebook and I don’t always watch them. I saw this one earlier but didn’t have 15 minutes, but made a note to check it later. Right before I started cooking I thought I’d give it a look. I’m so glad I did. I know what defines me, what defines you?
moirahoran 