Today Feels Like Friday
Because it is for me. And along with that Friday-Feeling comes the inability to focus on tasks. Even ones related to the weekend’s mini vacation like a “packing list” so I don’t run around all Nutty Professor style this evening and tomorrow morning trying to calculate the exact number of underwear, bras, and socks I will require.
Prior to the ass-crack of dawn, we will be heading to Phoenix for spring training – the last time we went was 2007 – so damn long ago! I am selling out on my self-imposed AZ boycott (since I think the whole “ we can pull you over and ID you at random for deportation” is pushing the lines of freedom/privacy), but I am a sucker for cheap baseball games, Chompies, Four Peaks Brewing, and the Grand Canyon.
Inaugural Safari Park Half Marathon
A quick little recap on my race this past weekend, let’s just say I was ill-prepared for the steepness of the hills in the Safari Park Half Marathon. I was churning out 8:05, 8:08, 8:10 – exactly where I wanted to be – and then the first set of hills came at mile 4 and I chugged up them around 9:00. The unfortunate part was that just I had recovered from the hills we had to do the same ones on the way back (mile 8)! That’s where I came unraveled a bit and had a mile spilt of 9:33. The good thing about this race effort was that I really didn’t fade at the end. My last two miles were 8:15 and 8:21 – normally I am battling to maintain 8:30-8:40 in the last three miles. I finished at 1:50:01. I hate that :01. Seriously, 1:49:59 would look worlds better in my petty running mind than 1:50:01. I am just happy I didn’t get 1:50:00. That would piss me off even more.
Normally, I am not sore from a half marathon, but these hills really spanked you around (nevermind the unpaved dirt road hill on the way back). I still have lingering soreness today. Four days later. Not an easy course.
As I was milling around the finish area trying to kill time waiting for my other running buddies to finish, I spotted Broke Runner Linzay right next to me. So, I had to pull Crazy-Blog-Weirdo-Stalker on her and tap her on the shoulder. She ran a blazing 1:41 and change and I literally swore out loud (“holy f*ck", specifically, is what I said) when she told me her time. It was nice to meet a shorty that runs so fast!
The porta potty situation at this race was just OK. There were just barely enough of them, but, when you use them at 6:15am the day of the time change, you can’t see anything. Total darkness. No one likes to wipe their ass in total darkness. By 7am start time it was light but, there were huge lines and the stench was emanating so far you could smell them more than 10 feet away. Not sure what the story was with those, but, there is room for improvement there. They should not smell that badly from that distance.
I also never saw any animals while running. The Safari Park aspect of it, for me, kinda sucked. Maybe they were all still sleeping. Or we scared them. I did have the opportunity to curse out some dude in a car (window down) trying to cross the line of runners at mile 11-ish. I yelled at him “Come on, dude!” three times – that’s all that came to my mind at the time. It was said with the same affect that you would use for “Seriously?!” I am not sure why the traffic attendant wasn’t stopping this guy from inching forward.
Alright, folks, I am super chatty today, so it’s best I cut this short before I bore you all to tears. And I have to calculate my minimum required vacation underwear packing number.
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