More mundane running babble

Except that, maybe, it wasn't so mundane. I signed up to run a 10K, and today was the DAY of the Dexter-Ann Arbor run. Each year a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon is run along Huron River Dr. The road is quite scenic and totally worth getting up at 5:30 am (yes, Domie...AM) for it. I enjoyed the run immensely, gazing at the wild phlox, the poison ivy (itch itch itch), and the masses of people passing me by.
Today's journey starts at 5:30 am, no wait...5:00 am...when NPR started discussing religious tolerance in the Middle East. I dragged my butt out of bed, finally, at 5:30, and breakfasted on a yummy (oh so yummy) Montreal bagel (they're REAL good) and some coffee. Now, while I may have a fleet of pirate ships along the Oregon coast, I have no motorized transport here in my exile of Michigan. I just have a bicycle to get around. And, it was raining this morning. And, yours truly had to bike and slosch her way to the loading area where buses took us to the start. All I have to say right now is...thank you sweet lord for creating synthetic fabrics. Because, the all-powerful Oz knows that wet cotton really sucks to run in. So, no problem! Even though I was pretty soaked from my bike ride, I dried out quickly.
I ran with G-man, a post-doc in my lab, and the race started off without a hitch. Feeling semi-delerious, I thought that I could finish without taking my usual walk-breaks. Of course, I made that decision at mile 1 when the energy is still high, you're warming up and feeling good. So..maybe not the best time to go all egomanic on one's suffering legs. But, I stuck with it and only had one brief walk break for less than a minute. THAT, I was most pleased with. And, it did make a difference in my finish time. I broke my goal pace by ~30 seconds, and my pace was 10:36 min/mile.
Another bonus was seeing the elite runners finishing up the half-marathon. Imagine someone running 13 miles in the time it take you to run 6, the winner of the half-marathon had a pace of less than 5 minutes per mile...these men are zooming! It was awesome, and inspiring, to see them chugging faster than most scooters toward the finish. They even had a police escort, how awesome is that?
The last quarter of a mile was hell for me because I had side stitches and I wasn't about to walk. (bad ego, bad!) But, when we finished, I was happy because a) I finished and b) I made good on my goal to not use too many walking breaks. The post-run picnic was pretty tasty with all the usual suspects: chocolate cherry bread, bananas, and tons of water. I'm resting now but I feel great. Can't wait for October!
A big congrats to Mattie, who finished the half-marathon with an awesome pace of 7:13 minutes/mile! :D

Trodding along, :) LJS