Friday, November 25, 2011

Mancester Road Race

What a great way to start my Turkey Day.  I got up yesterday at 6:30am to get ready to drive the 45 minutes to Manchester CT to run in the 75 annual Manchester Road Race.  This is the first year that I have ever run this race.  My father and brother live in Manchester so I drove to their house.  It was better than taking the shuttle which I heard was super packed and no fun. 

I got to my father's house about 9am.  The race started at 10am and they wanted all runners to be lined up by 9:30.  He was able to drive me about a mile from the starting line.  A lot of roads in down town Manchester were closed by then.  I huffed it the mile to starting line.  They have runners line up by the time which they think it will take them to finish.  I was figuring about 50 minutes or so.  I tried to get my bum back to where I should be but there were 20,000 people in my way.  I felt like cattle.  Everyone was trying to get to the same place but there was no room to move.  At 9:50 am I figured I was never going to make it to the over 40 minutes sign.  When the gun went off people lifted the barrier between where us "late" runners were and where we were supposed to race.  I squeezed in to masses. 

There was really no running for about a 1/2 a mile.  We were squished so tight with our fellow runners it was even hard to walk.  It started to thin out a little at the 1/2 mile mark and I was at least able to jog.  At the hill around mile 2 the herd started to thin a little.  So many people were dressed up for the race.  Or half naked and painted.  Which when you are squished together for a half an hour is kinda fun.  My sweat shirt probably has blue and white body paint on it from the seven foot man who was topless and painted who was squeezed up against me at the start line. 

After the initial hill at mile 2ish it was mostly down hill from there.  I listened to a book on tape as I ran.  It make the run seem pretty quick.  I enjoyed seeing all of the costumes that people had donned for the occasion.  I saw a couple of supermen, some teletubies, Thor and a teenage mutant ninja turtle.  I did not get any photos.  It was too squished to get the phone out to get some. 

I made pretty good time.  52:12.  It is only 2 minutes off my goal and not being able to run for the first half a mile I think it is pretty good. 


Here is a photo I stole from the Hartford Courant

Here are my split times from my Garmin for yesterday's run.

Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary 52:12.4 4.79 10:53.9
1 11:00.8 1.00 11:00.8
2 12:20.9 1.00 12:20.9
3 10:39.3 1.00
4 10:21.0 1.00 10:21.0
5 7:50.2 0.79 9:55.1

Friday, November 18, 2011

Sorry for the hiatus

October was a crazy month for me.  I participated and volunteered at my work's 5K the Bridgfest.  I was also battling with being ill from my birth control Implanon.  Implanon is a birth control implant that is about 2 to 3 inches long that gets implanted in your upper arm.  I had it for about 2 years, it should last for 3 years before being removed.  I had a lot of trouble with break through bleeding and generally feeling awful.  The doctors put me on a heavy dose of hormones to stop the bleeding but that made me nauseous  and grouchy.  So there for no blogging.  I got the implant out the 18th of October.  Man was that a nerve wracking experience.  The incision is only about a half an inch long but anytime some one comes at me with a scalpel when I am awake it makes nervous.

 This is my arm the day after the removal

This is two weeks out.  A lot of bruising.

We went to New Orleans the last week of October with two other couples.  It was a nice trip.  I had never been to New Orleans and didn't know what to expect.  The hotel that we were staying at did not have a gym.  That kinda made me sad.  And I was not going to run the streets of New Orleans by myself.  (None of the people that I went with are runners)  The highlights of the trip included eating my first po' boy (I don't eat fish or sea food so it was a chicken fried steak po' boy), riding a mechanical bull, walking down Bourbon street at night, having Beignets at Cafe du Mondes and going on a ghost tour.  It was a great experience but my body can not handle the fried food and no running.  I was glad to get home and back to routine. 

 A picturesque cafe in the French Quarter

This is also from the French Quarter (we never left it)

Jackson statue and Saint Louis Cathedral

The weekend we got back was my husband and my 2nd wedding anniversary.  October 29th and the day of the October nor'easter that knocked power out for almost the whole state of Connecticut.  Luckily we did not lose power.  But we did have a fairly steady stream of friends coming by to shower and watch a little TV.  

So, hopefully life will be getting back to normal now that my body is not pumped full of hormones and I am eating what I normally eat.  I can't believe next week is already Thanksgiving.  I am going to run the Manchester Road Race on Turkey day.  One of my friends is coming up from Tampa FL to spend Thanksgiving with her family and is going to be running it too.  I am excited to see her.  I wish she would take me home with her to Tampa so I could miss the snow we will get this winter.