amkean pronunciation

I ran a half marathon in my VFFs, which was going to be the farthest I've run in those things. However, I didn't allow enough time to take into account that I was parking two miles from the start line, so I ended up running those 2+ miles before the actual race even started. That shorter distance was mostly on grass, which will become significant later on.

I raced past the start line, past the 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 minute mile pace markers where the distance got wider and wider as the pace got slower, and finally found the bag drop where I could leave my sweats to pick up at the finish so that I wouldn't be cold at the end. I considered not checking a bag, and that would have been a really bad idea for reasons to be described later. I then ran back to get with my pace group with about a minute to spare since the race started a few minutes later than the scheduled time.

No one recognized my costume beyond "crazy hair guy."


I didn't spaz out at the start, instead running a conservative first mile with the intention of running negative splits. This worked until I hit an asymptote, but I didn't slow down after that, either. Normally, I'd be gutting out the last few miles, but I felt fine on this run. My big leg muscles weren't dying like in prior races of this distance. I credit the shoes. I was able to finish with a nice kick.

The shoes have drawbacks as well, though. Five days later, and I can still feel tightness in my calves. This isn't as big a downside as having the bottoms of my feet slightly bruised from running on pavement for that far. I've only run on grass this week, although I guess I could have put on conventional running shoes. Somehow, I got blood underneath one little toenail. I've heard runners talk about losing toenails, but it's never happened to me before.

We were supposed to take a shuttle bus back to the start, so I found out where the shuttles would be and we found the sign indicating the shuttle stop. We waited there about 20 minutes with about 20 other people before people started questioning whether we were in the right spot. But there's a sign that says we're in the right spot! On the other hand, there was a bigger group of people on the other side of the rose garden. Still, I didn't move because I had a sign backing me up. Then I saw an actual bus on top of the hill, not where the sign was, so I moved to the back of a now very long line and waited 40 minutes to get on the bus which was about 15 minutes more than if I hadn't stuck to my sign position and switched spots right away. It wasn't super cold, but I was glad to have my sweats while waiting for that bus. Not everyone in line did.

When I got home from the race, we were relaxing on the couch when I decided I just wanted to check in on the Stewart/Colbert rally to see what was going on. I hadn't been that interested in it to begin with, but I watched that thing until the end. It sucked me in and was entertaining and a little inspiring in a cynical age. Especially in light of Tuesday's events. I know they have lots of space to fill with election analysis, but isn't 95% of the result explained by bad economy and employment is bad for incumbents?

In case you were wondering, it's November 4 and I'm not planning on doing Nanowrimo for the first time since 2003. I don't feel like I'm in a place to do it right now.

Labels: running