The course, however, was not so fabulous. There were at least 3 HUGE hills (described as "rolling hills" in the course description, which was a big, fat, evil lie)- every time we turned a corner there was another one looming ahead. The second time we came to one I said "You've got to be kidding me." out loud. The third time I just laughed. They weren't just hills, they were small mountains, and they just kept on coming. Besides the fact that we had to deal with the mountainous hills, this was an open course. Completely open course. Meaning, as concerned as I was about making it up the hill, I was more concerned about not getting hit by one of the many cars driving towards me. At one point we were on a main route of the town, and my poor running skills were causing some poor soul in a Prius a delay in getting into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. I felt very badly that my slow pace as I trudged across the DD driveway was keeping someone from their coffee a few seconds longer. You never know what might happen when you come between a coffee freak and their morning cup; I know I might be tempted to hit a runner if one was keeping me from my coffee on a Saturday morning.
But at the same time as I felt bad for the residents of this poor town, I also thought it was totally crummy that I had to come between a stranger and their coffee in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, races should be run on a closed or at least partially-closed course. There's enough to think about when running a race, I really don't appreciate having to add "being struck by an automobile" to the list. Also as far as I'm concerned, races should not involve significant hills; even running downhill isn't as easy as it seems, so let's just keep them out of races altogether, shall we?
I blame the hills for my 34:38 time, but I know that without them I would have done even better, which is encouraging. Audrey came in right ahead of me and Lola right behind me. We totally kicked those hills' asses while dodging traffic and keeping a good pace, but none of us will ever run this particular race again!
I found your blog thru Oz Runner's blog... I read your first 2 posts & I so relate to a lot of what you wrote (hating gym class, hating running, wanting to focus on the positive). I also love the bumblebee reference.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your 5K! I had to laugh at what you wrote about keeping someone from pulling into the DD parking lot. I run super slow and often feel bad for people who are kind (and unlucky) enough to wait for me to cross in front of them. I'm sure they're thinking, "Geez! Can you GO any slower??". I can.
I look forward to reading more about your training for the triathlon!
p.s. My parents thought I was joking when I said I decided to train for a marathon.