We start with the pre race meal.  Ted wanted to “slum” it again. See what happens when guys have a few beers together?  They forget anything fancy and gourmet.  

Well, we didn’t actually slum it and, I have to say, my salmon was one of the most perfectly cooked pieces of salmon I’ve had in a very long time.

We went to Ninety Nine Restaurant

DSC00915 DSC00917

DSC00916 The bar tender explained that the cooking time is automated but some of the cooks use their own judgment over the automated timer.  I had one of the good cooks.

DSC00919 DSC00920

Oh look!  The Ninety Nine supports our local race!

DSC00918

Speaking of races, today is the Fort to Fort in Rome, NY.   I was up about 4 times last night. Not sure why, just didn’t sleep well.   Too much water, wine and coffee I guess. 

Finally, at 6:25 I got up. That’s sleeping in for me.  Shane and I went on a 2.15 mile warm up run at 6:45 am.  Slow pace, just to get the blood flowing.  It was such a wonderful morning, dry and cool with the potential of warming up to the perfect temperature at race time, 9 AM.  I decided to wear my low mileage racers: 

DSC00921

They are super light and great for shorter runs. Yes, they are very orange.  The inside is blue.  Hey! They’re true Orangemen sneaks!  Go Syracuse!   Ok…back to the run….

I left the house at 8:05, about 10 minutes later than I had planned.  Still, I knew where I was going to park and I knew the routine I would follow once on the race grounds.  Since when do things go according to plan?

When I arrived at the Geiger Rd. facility (the start of the race location), they had changed the parking lots.  I couldn’t park in my usual spot. Nuts! That put me farther away from the registration.  I hustled, picked up my number and timer, a shirt (which I exchanged for an XL figuring Ted might want it), and headed for the bathroom. The line to the bathroom was SO LONG.  There was 20 minutes until start time.  Oh boy!  It was now 5 minutes to start and I was about 6 away from the stall. I said to the gal behind me, lets go to the men’s room. Ok – we were in. There were more women in there than men. It was gross. Never use a men’s room ladies, if you don’t have to.

Hustled up to the start.  Luckily it was about  5 minutes late going off. What a crowd.  By the way, I didn’t take my camera so, unfortunately I won’t be showing you what a glorious day for racing it was.

We started. My heart was pounding and my stomach was in knots from being delayed at the gym.  What happened to Ted’s shirt?  Well, I tucked it into a corner just outside the gym and hoped for the best.

I started fast because it was a gentle downhill start.  Then I began picking out people for my pacers.  I felt good. I felt like I was going a bit fast for me, but kept thinking “keep going at this pace until that point”.  “THAT” point would come and I would still keep going. 

As we were approaching Fort Stanwix, I saw the leader coming back, behind the police car.  He was quite a bit ahead of the 2nd placer.  Then zooming along in third was Richard Cohen.  I gave him a yell and a wave “Great Going Richard!”  He flashed me a smile.  Geesh – that guy is fast!

fort stanwx2

We went up the stairs to Fort Stanwix – This is a photo off their site.  There was NO SNOW today. It was hot!   A gal stands at the top of the stairs telling runners to watch their heads – low ceiling.

Through the fort to the left and over the bridge

fort stanwx1

Another photo from their site.  I love running through the Fort. It breaks up the run perfectly. 

Now it’s the run for home.  I checked Garmin at about 4 miles and my pace was 8:02.  I thought that’s fast for me, and almost INSTANTLY my legs went heavy.  After the race, I told two other girls about that and they said the same thing happened to them.  NOTE TO SELF:  Don’t check your Garmin in the middle of the race.

I passed a couple of the people I was using to pace myself.  Then one gal passed me. 

“100 METERS TO GO”  they were yelling.  I turned on what I had left (which surprisingly felt good – could have gone faster- SHOOT!), passed the girl that passed me, and crossed at 50:37 minutes.  My Garmin said 50.42 and indicated a pace of 8:08.  I’ll take the 50:37 because every little bit counts.   Cool!

Scrambling for water….pant, pant, pant 

DSC00927

I ran up to get my camera from the car, leave a message for Ted, and eat the other half of my banana.

I took a photo of other finishers just desperate to cross that line

DSC00922

Someone said “They have quite the spread in there” so naturally I checked out the food.

Sandwiches: Vegetable, turkey, or ham

DSC00923

Bananas, oranges, and yogurt

DSC00925

Assorted cookies…

DSC00926

That’s all great, but the only thing I can eat immediately after a race is half of a banana.

Then the results were posted. 

I was SECOND in my age group. Yay!   Should I stay to collect my medal?  I tried but time was getting on and I wanted to get home to Shane

DSC00928

The result:  After a complete upset of plans at the start, it turned out to be my best 10 k yet.

Whoops! Forget to tell you. We have a bunch of honest people around Rome because the shirt was still in the corner waiting for me. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Ladies XL and not a mens. Oh well. Ted STILL doesn’t get his running shirt.

Joanne

Print Friendly, PDF & Email