Dash Down Greenville Plus Thirteen

This past Saturday, I had signed up to run the Dash Down Greenville.  I was super excited to get to this 5k and pace a friend that I had been coaching, Holly, for her first 5k.  Plus, by my estimation, we'd be able to keep about the same pace that my friend, Emily, would need for her PR (and by pure coincidence Holly and Emily also know one another via other means).  Also running with us, was Emily's brother, Caleb, who was also on his way to his first 5k.  I love to see the running family growing!!!

(Thank you Jill for suggesting my Princess shirt with my lime tattoo skirt.  LOVED the combo.)

We saw some great outfits at the starting line, but my favorite were these guys:

Their shirts were hilarious... especially the guy on the end whose shirt says "Running Sucks."  I'm sure they thought I was nuts when I asked to take a photo with them for my blog.

Not long after that, we smooshed our way up through the crowd a bit.  As with many fun runs, runner etiquette was kind of out the door.  I saw strollers lined up toward the front of the extremely crowded starting area.  I was determined to start in front of them, even if I was slower.  It was way too crowded to deal with tripping over large strollers.  And again with the people in jeans.  Cotton, I can understand... but jeans just sounds like a bad chafe waiting to happen. 

Anyhow, the temp was perfect and finally the gun sounded.  We were off!  It took us about half a mile to navigate the crowd and find our pace because I didn't want anyone wasting their energy on weaving in and out of crowds.  But we found that pace and hit it just right (the goal was 11:00 min/mile).  First mile 10:55.  Second mile had a decent incline in it and Emily's brother started to pull away.  We let him go and kept it steady up the hill and clocked mile 2 at 11:00.  This is about where I also got to see the lovely Karen (Jason's wife), as she passed me.  A nice boost to see a friendly face.

Right as we started mile 3, I could see the look on Holly's face started to signal discomfort.  I probably talked too much, but I told her she had to stick with me one more mile.  I remember telling her that in 10 minutes, it would all be over.  I could tell the tone had changed because no one would respond when I talked anymore... hmmmm... but they stuck with it.  Then we hit a final incline about 0.3 from the finish.  Emily took about 3 walking steps, and I turned to her and said "not now... almost there... your PR is less than 4 minutes away."   Not only did she start running again, she took off... and I followed, trying to help Holly along to finish out her first 5k.  Mile 3 clocked in at 10:38!!!  Amazing.  Seriously, beaming with pride for Emily and Holly.  And immediately we could see the finish line, and they both pulled out a final kick and cruised through the finish line for a 33:31 and 33:34 finish!  10:50 average pace.  A 40 second PR for Emily and a respectable first 5k for Holly!  (Caleb ended up finishing about 40 seconds ahead of us.)

I wish I had more pictures, but I did what everyone does after a 5k, and headed straight to the lake for 13 miles to finish out my planned 16 mile day.  I got to the lake and Robin was waiting there for me (I know, I have rockin' friends) to run the remaining 13 with me.  The run started nice... we kept a steady 11 min pace.  And then... it started to get hot... and the wind started to get really bad like last weekend.  30mph gusts on the lake is no fun.  Already by 6, I was feeling whipped.  Around 7 or 8, I saw this burst of energy coming the other direction shouting my name.  It was Jason with a huge high five.  It was really odd seeing both him and his wife in the same day at different places.  But anyway, it was just the burst of motivation I needed.  Just past mile 9, I took a quick stop at my car to chug some gatorade.  Then we carried on... we kept trying to discuss at what mileage we would turn around and I'm certain our heads were in a fog.  I'm a math girl, and all of a sudden the calculations weren't making any sense.

By 11 miles, I felt nauseous and dizzy and altogether awful.  By 12 miles, we turned around to head back.  By 12.5, Robin felt nauseous and dizzy and suggested we start walking (mind you, Robin can run circles around me, and she never asks to walk, so I knew she felt bad).  I was stubborn though and insisted that somehow my body would make it to the planned 13.  When we hit that 13, though, Robin was bending over and I was not walking a straight line.  I don't know what it was about that day.  We then walked the remaining 1.7 miles to the car.  Not sure what was up that day, but it wasn't our day to feel good... but we still got the miles!  Total for the day was 17.8 miles.