Archive for June 28th, 2009

This was my worst race all year, but I knew it would be as of last night at my friend Yvonne’s birthday party where I downed about 2/3 bottle of Pinot and ate till my tummy ached.  I managed to get to bed at 11:30 but had one of those drunken wake-up-at-3am scenarios where you never really get back to solid sleep.

Honestly, I would have bagged this race if I hadn’t already bagged the Media 5-miler a couple weeks ago because it was another hot one – sunny and 76 degrees.  But one of the benefits of having a blog is you have to do shit you’ve committed to, else you look like a big wuss to a ton of people.  That said, though it sucked time-wise, it was pretty entertaining in all other aspects.

The race goes around a sports arena, the Wachovia Center, home to the 76ers (the Philly basketball team, for those as sports-retarded as me).  It circles the arena and a large parking lot 2.5 times so it’s all on concrete sidewalks.  Half the course (around the perimeter of the parking lot) smells like piss, which makes you want to go faster, though I couldn’t, try as I might.

I knew it was going to be a difficult run during my warmup when my strides clocked a blistering 6:50.  Oh well, as I wrote in the Women’s BQ thread, I’m due a “fun run” so this was it.

For the bulk of the race, there was a young thing neck-and-neck with me and another woman right ahead of us.  There were also 2 girls ahead but not within my immediate area.  All I could manage was 6:55 mi, which on one hand was “omg, look how hard I suck”  but on the other hand, I just worried about these two others and fought for placing.

At 3/4 mile left to go, the one girl in front of me just plain gave up…stopped dead in her tracks.  That was fabu, though I totally understood the feeling and felt bad for her.  The neck-and-neck girl slowed down as well, so I beat her, too.

Cut to the chase, I won 3rd place OA with a 21:29. 1st and 2nd were a 19 and 20 year old (see how I make myself feel better for a cruddy race by blaming the youth of today?)

But the bounty!  Oh my, if I cared about basketball, I’d be in heaven.  As it is, Nick’s kids (one of whom is visiting from Oregon, the other lives in an apt. below) were like pigs in shit splitting up the booty.  Otherwise, I’d have put it all on Ebay.

The one thing I kept is a certificate for 2 Club Box tickets to a 76ers game this coming season – supposedly that’s pretty cool with waiter service and everything.  As for the rest, I got a ton of signed crap; 3 mini-basketballs, 2 framed photos, 3 hats, a t-shirt, a basketball jersey, a journal, playing cards, noisemaker, water bottle and a duffel bag to hold it all (cat not included).

So I had a fine time despite my silly finishing time.  In fact, I’m kind of happy that I finally had a “fun run” of a race.  Onward and upward, now I can concentrate on enjoying the rest of the summer, rebuilding my mileage and getting ready for marathon training in August.

Ciao darlings.  Until the next installment, run well everyone!