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On this year’s to-do list: a half marathon. This from a gal who swore "I am not a runner" until Susan dragged my rear into gear for the post-Thanksgiving Run to the Far Side. How can one not run when amidst a herd of fish, cows, and cavemen?! Especially after a day of yams, pie, wine, and turkey?
So for this endeavor, I required suitable distractions. The first ever San Jose Rock n Roll half marathon fit the bill: 14 bands, packs of cheerleaders, and some friends to keep me company. After all that G n’ R I’ve been feeling pretty Rock n’ Roll, so heck, let’s do it.
Mike ditched us by about mile 4 or so, but My Muddy Buddy and Loreli (the queen of fitness, who ran this thing less than 5 months after giving birth to a beautiful baby), stayed together through 13.1 miles of knee soreness, music, port a potties/Amino Vital/h20 on the run.
Although tempted to vote for the all women’s punk group Inspect Her Gadget, I ultimately voted for Bento. But this race would be worth walking through just to spend time really taking in the impressive local talent.
As for the cheerleaders, it’s not everday I get little girls high-fiving me and screaming at me to "stay strong" through megaphones as they jump around with tinsel pompoms.
The Kenyan and other African runners managed to leave absolutely everyone in the dust (as expected). I believe the top 10 runners came in at under 1 hr and 10 seconds or so for the 13.1 miles. (holy cow, do the math!)
Despite our rest stops, we came in at under 2:30 - better than I had anticipated given that my lazy butt, nasty cold, and oppressive work schedule had conspired in such a way that I never actually did a training run past about oh…7.5 miles or so. My estimate was that by mile 9 I’d be in grim shape and just start walking. What the heck-they give you up to 4 hours or so to finish… But when we reached another cool band and the bystanders yelled "almost there! You’re at mile 10!" I was pleasantly surprised.
So that’s what P would call getting my mid-life crisis out of my system for awhile. Recovery was smooth, 2 days later I wasn’t even sore, (maybe that Amino Vital stuff really does work) 3 days later we went back out for a run after work. The only casuality from all this? A teeny pinky toenail just up and plinked off. Gee, that didn’t even happen when I used to do ballet.
Small price to pay. Pain is temporary-the joy of accomplishment is forever-
see y’all at next year’s race!
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