13 miler

all week i have been feeling not quite right i'm not pregnant, it turns out, so that is good. but it leaves mewondering why i have been feelign the way i have. all week i debated about the 13 mile trail run on saturday. i decided to do it but debated up until the time they sent us off whether it was really a good idea. here is how the race went.

i start out the race thinking ideally i would like to come in at 2:30 but realistically i think 3:00 would be more on target.

Pre-race meeting: they tell us there is 2700 ft of vertical, they tell us there is a water station at 3 and 9 miles. they say at mile 10 there is 600 ft of vertical in that mile so to make sure to be ready for it but then after it the rest is flat or downhill.
they send us off.
15 minutes into the race - there is a hill, the same one from the 5 miler i had done a while back
20 minutes in: i am thinking this was a really bad idea
35 minutes in: i hit the 3 mile water station. eric, the kids and the photographer are here. eric took some pictures.
42 minutes in: i stop to pee on the side of the trail
1:07 in: i am starting to feel pretty good and think this is actually going to be ok. i catch a girl who asks me the time and i tell her i think we are probably a little over 5 miles in. she doesn't believe me but i think that is where we are. about this same time i set my new goal to hit the 9 mile mark at 2:00
1:48 in: i am thinking i might not get to 9 miles by 2:00 since the trail does not look to be heading in any direction where there might be a water station. about this time, i think, ok, next year, i will come better trained, less vertigoed and i will kick some ass.
2:20 in: i start heading up hill. seriously up hill, like so up hill that its straight up switch backs and they are kicking my ass. i think - is this the hill that was supposed to be at mile 10? did they close down the water station because i was taking so long? i was totally ok with that idea i keep going straight up. it never ends. i have to stop a few times, i almost start to cry because it just keeps going and going. i don't cry because if i did two things would happen: i would wind up totally bawling and then i would never get out and the other is that i would then be "they cryer", ya know, the person who isn't hurt but is crying anyway. at this point i decide to screw coming back next year and instead i will drop out at the 9 mile water station.
2:40 i get to the water station and am like "what the fawk!" 40 minutes past my revised goal. ugh. i hang out, have a pretzel, joke with the lady there, some guy tells me that that hill was the big hill and there aren't any more, the lady assures me there isn't anything tramatic in the last4 miles. i grab some more water, some more pretzels and head out. i tell them it will be another hour until they see me at the finish.
2:54 they are big fat liers!!! there is that 600 ft climb. i go way slow, slowere then slow, slower then the slowest of all slow. then i get to the top.
here is when i lost track of time pretty much. i take up a new tactic where i will run for 5 minutes and then walk for 5. it turns into run for like 2 and walk for like 15. i get to some markings on the trail where there are arrows and ribbons pointing in both directions and i just stood there for the longest time tryingt o figure out what to do. i pick my route and run into some horses who say i am almost done. i hit one last water station and they say its .6 miles to the finish. i can run .6 miles! ok, apparantly i couldn't, but i did run most of it.
3:40 i finish. there was no feeling of releif, there was no feeling of great accomplishment. i just wanted to sit down. seamus and i walked to the car. she wanted to watch the water run down the parking lot. and i just couldn't stand up any more so i sat on the ground and she wound up sitting with me.
the two people who came in right before me was a man who was doing the race in tevas and a woman who broke her elbow and cracked her hip mtn biking three weeks earlier. i as not last, i don't think, but i very well could have been the last finisher. i had passed some people at the three mile water station that didn't pass me later but we did not stick around to see if they ever finished.
today i feel sore but suprisingly ok. i tend to kick myself in the left ankle when i am tired so i have a bruise there and i have a really big blister UNDER a callous on that same foot. i have a few other blisters as well, but luckily i didn't discover them until after the race. they did their job and did not pop.
so, i might not do this event next year, but i do think i might try the seattle 1/2 marathon in november. the danskin triatlon is next weekend, the issaquah triathlon is the weekend after that and then the escape from the rock, mercer island is september 10. then i can rest and decide about the 1/2.