Utica Boilermaker 15k

Weather Report: Partly Sunny, 81°F, 46% Humidity, Winds: From WNW @ 6 mph; feels like 86°F.

Run: 9.3 miles in 1:08:29 min. @ 8:00 a.m.
Pace: 7:22 min./per mile avg.

Pre-Race Observations When I woke up at 3:00 a.m. this morning to take the roughly 240 mile drive to Utica, NY, I immediately wished I had gone to bed, or rather to sleep, much earlier than I had. I was already tired. Last night I had attempted to sleep at 10:00 p.m., but after an hour of restlessly tossing and turning, I returned to read more of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. If I couldn't sleep, I wanted to be productive. Eventually I nodded off at around 11:30 p.m., until I woke up, shuffled downstairs and began my routine of drinking two cups of joe.

I packed my junk into the Super Car (which is what we call my Scion [pictured from another race, below]--mostly because its small size makes it useful for fitting into tight spaces), and left the house at just before 4:00 a.m. The ride itself was enjoyable, if for no other reason, than I was able to listen to music on the radio, which while primarily out of necessity, is something I generally don't do.

Post-Run Reflections: The pre-race camaraderie was immensely enjoyable, although I arrived at the start via the shuttle bus, I failed to properly warm-up. Truth be told, I did not arm-up or stretch hardly at all--well, not at all, save some prefunctory toe touches. Big mistake.

I was so busy (happily) chewing the cud about running and school and blah, blah, blah... that when the race began (and i was actually very close to the start by virtue of my anticipated finish a prediction I would later regret as I ran terribly.

In the final analysis, looking at my time, I did not do as poorly as I initially thought, but I was definitely psychologically defeated, when, legs in concrete and sweating like a 300 pound in a sauna, I observed other runners whom I recognized passing me by with little effort. My deduction: they, as runners, are getting faster, and I am staying same or--GASP!-- getting slower! UPDATE: Official results showed that did not place as poorly as I initially thought, 1189 out of 10882 finishers, 1030 of 6388 men, and 94 out of 759 in my age group (M35-39).

What this all means is next time I'll eat more earlier in the day to better build my energy stores, stretch and warm-up more completely so that I feel looser and lighter, and, finally, continue to try and run my own race rather than being discouraged by the advances of others. HUZZAH!

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

P.S. Thanks to SuperCar, I avoided being trapped in the parking lot by some idiot in a truck who blocked the exit... another nice lady who also needed to vamoose after the race found another gentlemen who could move his car and we could drive over the sidewalk and curb to escape the lot... YEAH SUPERCAR!