RUN : 13.1 // 2:56:20 / AVE PACE=13:26 / 4R:1W
The alarm went off at 4am. DD and I planned to leave my house around 5. It was cold and frosty out when I warmed up the car. I printed out the map on mapquest. As we got closer, we got a little off track -not our fault of course -damn directions. We stopped at a gas station to clarify where we were. I was putting gas in the car while DD ran inside. The attendant immediately thru up her hands signalling she was no help. So DD asked the other person in the store who was apparently still trying to get home after celebrating St. Pat's Day. No help. We were so far ahead of schedule we took our chances. At 630, we got there with plenty of time to spare.As we pulled in to park, we noticed the temperature was only 20.
We went into the HS gym and picked up my packet. As we waited for the race to begin, I began realizing how far that I was out of my league. These were front and middle pack runners. No back of the packers like me. I ran into
IRON SNOOPY and Moose. (They looked awesome in matching tights). They are training for Ironman Louisville so fit this race into their training schedule. We hit the Port-a-Pots and it was time to line up. I knew I was in the wrong race when the pace mile markers to line up ended at 9 min/mile. I was shooting for a 13:40 pace.
The course was considered to be a 8 out of 10 with 10 being the hardest. I heard there were a few challenging hills. The course of the Pig has hills so I thought that was a good thing. The first 3 miles cruised by with 12:43,12:59, 12:46 on the watch. When getting ready to go down a rather large downhill we realized the 10 mile marker was at the top of the hill. Damn- we'll have to go back up it. Now we came to the challenging part. The next miles were 13:22,13:07, 13:50,13:45 and 13:53. I felt comfortable but with not much more to give. DD is a faster runner but hung with me for support. She looked so smooth and comfortable. In this section of the course we saw a most unusual sight. The woman in front of us with a red ball hat with wings had pulled over to the bushes but was for some reason trying to poop in a bag. That's a first. Up ahead, I could see a man with orange shorts. I could not let him or the lady running behind him beat me. No reason why just because. Next miles were mainly up with that large hill at 10. Splits were 13:47,13:45, then 11:46 to the finish. Thanks DD for all your support-I couldn't have done it without you.
The course elevation from my Garmin
I was happy with how I did. I hoped to finish in under 3 hours . I started even after being so intimidated at the beginning. I will never do this race again though. There is no back of the pack support. At one point we were running in a neighborhood and thought we had lost the race. No cones, arrows or other people. The times were incredible. DD and I had a great long run and it was enjoyable.Our celebration lunch that we discussed often during the run was at California Pizza kitchen. It was so worth it. The wild mushroom pizza was great.
Waddling with sore legs.........
