Monday, March 18, 2013

The 2013 Shamrock 15K Race Recap: Oxygen Optional

Well, I made my C goal: I finished the damn race. 

Sadly did not make my B goal of beating my worst time for this race, which had been 2:17:02.  I wasn't all that far off though -- official finish time 2:18:50. 

The day turned out to beautiful, non-Shamrock weather but oh so much craziness with this race.  I made RR awfully nervous by my slow amble to the start.  Happily she did not throw up -- well, not then at least -- and we split up as RR and 2Fish wanted to start farther up the pack.  I think I ended up in the second to last wave start for the 15K. 

Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary 2:18:48.4 9.43 14:43
1 13:02.5 1.00 13:03
2 13:34.6 1.00 13:35
3 15:20.8 1.00 15:21
4 16:11.1 1.00 16:11
5 16:38.2 1.00 16:38
6 16:19.5 1.00 16:20
7 14:02.8 1.00 14:03
8 14:14.2 1.00 14:14
9 13:42.3 1.00 13:42
10 5:42.4 0.43 13:11

The first two miles were fast for me.  Particularly the first one because within minutes after starting I had to cough which triggered my gag reflex so there I am, not even a half mile into the race, doing that almost vomiting thing on the curb.  And to make it more fun, for some reason I was being closely followed by two police cars for the longest time.  I think they were on their way past the turnaround point on Naito but they were freaking me out. 

Anyhow.  Around 2.5 miles in, I remembered that I have exercised induced asthma.  That is particularly triggered by cold weather.  And it was around 35 degrees that morning.  Yes, asthma attack and I had completely spaced taking any asthma meds before the race or bringing my inhaler with me.  For the next seven miles, I managed maybe four deep breaths.  The rest of the time I tried not to hyperventilate.  That was at the base of Broadway where the uphill starts.  We finally get to go downhill during mile seven where I was able to make up some time but having such problems breathing that I was hard-pressed to run for any length of time.  Yet I still did a lot better than I should have for zero training and conditioning.

At the finish line, all was FUBAR.  Seems the volunteers didn't get the message that only the 15K runners get the medals, so they ran out about 1:50 into the race.  You know, when the bulk of the people are finishing.  The volunteers started handing out medals to all of the racers, or else they were taking them out of the unattended boxes of medals.  People were seriously pissed.  They ran out of beer about an hour later and nearly started a riot. 

I'm feeling decent today, like I ran 9.3 miles yesterday but not really any worse than that.  Did I learn anything from this experience?  Other than "take my asthma medication" I guess I didn't because..... Sunday is the Hop Hop Half Marathon.  Should be fun!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

1 comment: