As I had to work yesterday, I ended up getting off early on Friday.  However this was not planned and as such I was unprepared.   As I was driving past the lake path, I was cursing my lack of foresight, because I totally could have gone for a run.    But all I had in my car was my old pair of Inspire’s and my belt and earphones.  Think I could run in old shoes and a dress?  I might have received some interesting stares.   I also knew that being it was Friday I would lose the eagerness to run by the time I got home.  And I did.  So I ran errands and caught up on some reading instead.   Slacker!

Driving to work on Saturday, the weather was perfect for a run.  As evidenced by the numerous people that I saw running on the sides of the highway.  My Saturday commute takes me along 2 rural highways, both with wide paved shoulders.  There were quite a few people taking advantage of that that morning.  I was so jealous.   Even though rationally I knew that even if I didn’t have to work, I would probably be sleeping in instead, I was still jealous.   Runner’s logic, right?  It was interesting to see how some people were just running in shorts and shirts and others looked like they were wearing a parka.  It was a lovely crisp 45 degrees.   🙂  Ha!  I had the heater in my car cranked up.   The fog never stays gone for long though and rolled in by 11:30 so I got to drive home in the fog, oh boy!

I did make it to the track for a good run though.  I did 4 miles with an average pace of 10:07.  Usually my track times are a little faster than this, but I was brilliant and ate a large lunch about an hour before running.  I had been craving a hot dog as I hadn’t had one in almost a year.  After yesterday, it will probably be another year before I want another hot dog.  It was super yummy but it did not make my run fun at all.  On the plus side, I still love my new shoes!

This weekend was the Harvest Marathon in my home town.  It is actually the combo of what in previous years was 2 races: the Harvest Marathon and the Wine Vine Run.  I had participated in both events in the 5K in years past.    I really wanted to run the half marathon this year but since it was so close to the City to the Sea half marathon I was planning on extremely late registration.  I figured I would to see how I felt.  I felt great but my pocket book did not.  It came down to shoes or the race and shoes won.     Plus my left foot has been making itself known to me.  It still doesn’t hurt, but something is not right.    😦

However, I did participate in a way.  The race works as a fundraiser for the local high school’s athletic department.  My mother is head tennis coach there and all sports teams had to volunteer.  So I was up at 5AM to head out and help her and the team work a water table.   We had station #4 which was at mile 8.7 of the marathon.  The half marathoners had a different course.   We had the table up and ready to go by 7:00.  We had people to hand out water, a guy for traffic control and 2 athletic trainers.  We were ready to go but the race started at 7.  We had 40 minutes until we would see the first runner and it was so cold.  😦 I went and sat in my car until 7:35.  So very social of me.

The first runner came through around 7:50.  Woo hoo!!!  The first 5 people were men, then finally the first girl!  Actually I think she was another blogger that I just started following but not sure.  This was a hometown race so the marathon only had around 60 people registered, so there was a fair amount of time between people running by.   I was surprised by how much the runners were drinking though.  I have worked aid stations before and people always sipped and then threw the cups.  These runners were guzzling water down.  We started to think that we were going to run out of cups, most runners were taking 3 each!  Also half of them walked the cups to the trash bag on the opposite side of the street, even when we said they could just toss it and we would pick up after.   Also we were not a station that provided Gatorade but so many people wanted it.  I felt horrible every time we said that we didn’t have it!

In between the first pack and the second, the boys decided to play with branches they found on the side of the road.  Really? I could see the runners coming so I told them to put the sticks down, that we didn’t need to have the approaching runners think we were going to pull a Tonya Harding on them.  Every single teenager just stared at me.  They had no idea what I was talking about.  Am I really that old?!?!

The last runner passed at around 9:00 and we were done!  We packed up our stuff and headed out.

While I felt lazy that I did not run the half marathon this morning, I was also not inspired to run a marathon.  They all looked so damn tired when they ran through and they still had 17 miles to go.  Do I like that at mile 8 when I run half’s?  No wonder people think runners are slightly crazy.  Still it was rewarding to work the other side this morning and it’s probably not the last time I will do it.   I may even put this race on the schedule for next year, but I may try for Nike in SF instead.  🙂

Anyone race or volunteer this weekend?

Am I the only one feeling my age? ha!

• Race Day
• Run!
• Slacker