First, don't forget to visit the previous post and tell me what you are thankful for to enter a drawing for a free pair of RecoverySox. I will do the drawing on Sunday, Nov. 30.
Alright, on to the report! Yesterday started with rain pouring out of the skies, drenching the race course and causing nervousness among participants. I pounded four ibuprofen to help me with the pain in my knee (I know, bad runner! But I really wanted to run this race!) The photo album.
This is a fun, two-loop cross-country course through a large park in the center of Tucson. It includes haybale and water jumps along with short hills. This year, there were the official water jumps, and then there were the wash crossings and mud flats to get through as well.
(the hill down to the water jumps, before anyone made it slick)
I came into it sick and with a nagging knee injury (which I thought was fine, until I pushed it last week after my 15.4 mile long run...oops). I figured I would have a PW regardless of the course conditions!
The men ran first, so I got plenty of pictures of friends slipping and sliding their way through the course.
Then it was my turn.
Girls were shrieking as we started and then they started cutting the course, when they decided they didn't want to run up the flowing wash (apparently the front runners did; it was just the back-of-the-packers who were wimps). I noticed throughout the course a number of times that girls were cutting the course - since everything was so wet and torn apart from the men's race, you couldn't see the course markings on the grass.
I didn't get as muddy as I wanted; there were too many wash crossings that cleaned it all off! At one point, two girls were talking about some yucky medical stuff ("I got to cut off her skin cancer and stitch her back up!"), so I commented to them that that was a great way to psych out fellow runners. They shut up after that. I felt a little bad - I was just joking!
Close to the end, I caught sight of a friend taking photos - yay! I hadn't seen him during the men's race, so it threw me off when I saw him on the sidelines :) I also heard a random "go onepinkfuzzy!" at one point - I'm not sure who that was, but I threw my hands up in the air to cheer when I heard that.
I finished in just under 35 minutes, averaging an 11:20 pace. Not bad for an injured, sick runner on a muddy course at the back of the pack! It was a lot of fun; I got to catch up with a few runners I hadn't seen in a couple years, and talk to a few other friends. I also got to chow down on the world's best chocolate-chip-butterscotch cookies, courtesy of the same friend who took photos!
After that, I got Ash and cleaned myself up in preparation of going to a friend's house for turkey dinner. Ash ended up crashing at 4pm, falling asleep on the couch and not waking up until 6:30 this morning - he had a round of vaccinations on Wednesday, which I think caused him to be so tired (his arm is all red and swollen, and very painful). We played "catchphrase", enjoyed an amazing dinner and an even more amazing chocolate silk pie (so rich you couldn't even finish one small piece!), before heading home and sleeping it all off.
Today, Ash and I will be pulling out the Christmas decorations and setting up our tree. We'll see just how long the tree stays standing before the kittens pull it down and tear it to pieces. I'm not joking. They're evil. But adorable. And cute and cuddley and warm in the mornings when I wake up, so I keep 'em around :)
Tomorrow morning, we're off to my mom's house for our second round of Thanksgiving dinner, pie and friends and family. I was supposed to drive up today, so I could get up at zero dark thirty tomorrow morning and meet jeff for a run, but with this cold and knee pain, I need to rest, argh! Tomorrow's celebration will include nine kids under the age of eight, and about 20 adults, everyone trying to be heard over each other.
And Sunday may bring a pick-up soccer game. I haven't played much, but I have few friends on a soccer team, and they've invited me to a pick-up game. Should be fun!!
That crosscountry course looks like so much fun! Great job with the race. I'm sorry to hear that you knee is giving you some problems again. Rest and stretch and I hope it feels better soon.
Hi Angie .. this looked like fun. I was at UofA that morning and ran a 12 miler in the driving rain. It was a crazy morning.
Great report. Hope that knee heals up quickly.
Phil
Wasn't this fun? (But difficult!) Hurry up and heal- 2009 is just around the corner!