Saturday, July 23, 2011

Chapter 2 page 383 - TR 140 4 sweaty miles

As I've mentioned before (and perhaps you're tired of hearing it), today was the Kid's Triathlon in our town.  This is the 5th or 6th year for the event and I've been the starter for all of them!  I absolutely LOVE it!!!  It's so much fun to watch the excited kids (aged 5-12) and to chat with them to help them calm down.  It's kind of fun to watch the crazy over-the-top parents (seriously, one parent said to her son "Were you taking a nap during your swimming lap?" - rude!).  I'm glad I'm always on the opposite side of the pool from those parents.  I really might have had to tell some of them my opinion of their "support".  That's not to say that all of the parents are this competitive.  Many of them are uber supportive and just a whole lot of fun.  The kids are super awesome and the other volunteers are always fabulous (I always work very closely with 2 volunteers at the start - one of them stages the kids in the right heat, and the other one reports to the finish line which kids didn't show up and what time the heat started).  I'm just so honored to be involved with such a super well organized event by our City's Parks & Rec Department. 

I still have a 4 miler and a 3 miler to do this week (thanks to the awesome 4 day/week schedule and because of the extreme heat this week, I'm one run behind).  Knowing the city pool (where the Tri starts) was about 2 miles from my house (1.96 miles to be exact), I decided that this morning I would run to the event then run home afterward.  I packed a second shirt knowing I would be super sweaty (can only imagine the little kids . . . and their parents thinking "ohhh gross - she has to talk to me" so . . . that helped to have a fresh shirt -but with a heat index of 92* at 7:30, my "fresh" shirt was starting to get a bit sweaty)!  I also packed 2 bottles of water - one for the run there and one frozen one that would thaw during the event and be cold for the run back home.  Awesome plan!  Worked perfectly - definitely have to remember it for next year. 

Running in town isn't something I do very often and I'm so happy that's the way it is.  In-town running has a lot more obstacles than I have in the country or on paths.  Curbs was my primary frustration - there are so many ups and downs and at least here - they are all different heights.  Some are 6" while others are 20" - wow, that's high and adds a lot of quad effort (remember, I'm healing my left quad strain) when going up onto them and a lot of heel impact (remember my right foot PF has just finally become pain free) when coming down off of the curbs.  Boo to curbs!  Also, there were areas of my route that didn't have sidewalks - that was good in some ways, but there was traffic that made it a little nuts.  The other thing -a train. On my way back, a train went through so I'm waiting for it.  Thankfully, it was uncharacteristically short (our town is known for 10+ min trains).  Lastly, there were several loose dogs.  Fortunately, none were a problem, but it caused panic and fear.  I really don't know what I would have done if a dog would have attacked.  "C" was recently attacked by a dog on one of her solo runs - scary! 

I had my ipod on (the songs that came up were definitely not my fav - boo, but I sucked it up) and used a 3:1 interval (plus a few minutes walking for warm up and cool down for each of the 2 segments).  DM shows that it ended up being 12:55 m/m as I finished the 3.91 miles in 50:30.  That's pretty fast for me especially in this humidity that made breathing feel like it was through a wet towel - ugg! 

Hope you are all doing well getting in your mileage despite the heat!!!  

6 comments:

  1. Dogs are scary! I still have horrible memories as a child. Once being chased with my friend by a dog. She had to run. I was on my bike.

    Then another time playing in the snow and having a dog chase me and knock me down -- then take whiz on me!

    AWFUL memories.

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  2. @ Holly - OMgoodness!!!! Those are horrible stories. whizzed on? Poor thing!!!! That's REALLY terrible!!!! I was bit in the stomach by a little dog when I was little - left me fearful of dogs my entire life. We should create a "Runners who are afraid of dogs" support group - bet we'd get a lot of members ("L" & "C" would join us for sure!)

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  3. Nice job getting in the run--great idea to run there and then to run home!
    I really don't like running in areas with dogs, they scare me.

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  4. My boys love doing the kids triathlons, and I'm so grateful for people like you that allow it to happen. I'm a dog lover, but when I'm on a walk or run and see one the fear sets in, not sure what that is about!

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  5. That sounds like so much fun. I am signed up to help put together a 5k that will benefit a community garden on the other side of town and I can't wait to see the kids that day!

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  6. Oh my gosh... I can't believe how over-bearing some parents are! I think it does take a person on the "outside" to put them in their place and to show them how damaging their comments are to their kids.

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