The conversation with my mother after the race….

Joanne:  I just ran that 15K I told you about.

Mum:  How did you do?

Joanne: I actually ran better than the Boilermaker but messed up my time because I had to stop.  Turned out to be just gas.

Mum:  Well, maybe you should have let go.  It might have propelled you forward for a better time.

Joanne:  MUM!  You can’t just “let go”! You don’t know what you might “let go” of!!!”

Gotta love Mum’s way of thinking.  She’s never been a runner.

Race Recap

The Stockade-Athon in Schenectady, New York. A 15K race that is the oldest major 15K in the USA.

stockadeathon

The course is very interesting, not one section was boring.  A nice hill at the 5.5 mile point. Fairly flat and scenic there after.  Oh! There was another small incline, hardly worth mentioning somewhere around 7 maybe?

Let’s start with last night.

I wasn’t in the mood for this race.  It was a last minute decision and 9.3 miles was a bit much after only 4 weeks following my marathon and only running 9 full miles one time since Oct. 3rd.  I like to OVER prepare not UNDER prepare. 

Ted vacuumed for me Saturday.  He hurt his back.  I told him ..”SEE! That’s why I don’t like vacuuming and we need to hire someone to do it!” 

Saturday night, in spite of setting the clocks back one hour, we went to bed early.  Some point in the very early morning hours, I heard a BANG followed by a moan.  I thought Shane might have fallen down the stairs.  No – Shane was at the top of the stairs sleeping.  It was Ted.  His back spasmed and he was laying on the floor in bathroom.  After getting him up and icing his back, we were asleep again.  Should I run this race? He said go.  I was on my own to Schenectady.

Driving along, I realized I forgot to wear my lucky earrings. Bummer. Not a good start.

It was 33 degrees when I arrived at the park.  Brrrrr! I went to pick up my packet and found that I didn’t get a shirt due to late registration. Another bummer.   I went back to the car to pin my number on and THIS IS WHAT I SAW:

Number

OH NO! Should I run? 

I took off my cover shirt and went back to the packet pick up area where a gorgeous roaring fire was burning.  On my way, a fellow runner saw my number and said “WOW! Look at THAT number!”  My response:  “Yeah. I KNOW!!!!”   At the pavilion, where the fire was burning beautifully, no one was standing there except a lady who looked at me and QUITE aggressively said “ IF YOU’RE NOT REGISTERING, GET OUTSIDE!”  I said:  “What’s the fire for if we can’t stand in front of it? “  She said “It’s for after the race to keep you warm.”   Silly woman!  BEFORE the race we were all freezing, AFTER the race, we’re sweaty and hot.  Made no sense to me.

I made my way to the starting line, 20 minutes before the start. Talk about cold!  I chatted with a couple of gals.  At 9:05, we were off!

I felt good. That didn’t last. Just before the 3 mile point, I started having horrible stomach cramps. WHAT IS THIS?!!! Thinking that I had no clue where, if any, the porta-potties were along the course, AND that nothing was accomplished in the 6 trips to the bathroom prior to the race (if you know what I mean), I thought I’d better take the first opportunity to stop.  I saw a Stewarts Shop.  I left the pack, ran over, had to get the key and go back outside to the bathroom, back inside to return the key.  To my utter disappointment and CERTAINLY not worth the stop, it was a gas cramp.  Darn!   Again – nothing accomplished. But I couldn’t take the chance with everything else that was happening and of course….THE NUMBER

Number

So there you have the reason for the conversation with Mum.  That stop messed up my time, preventing me from out doing my Boilermaker time of 1:14. 

After the Stewarts stop, I ran to try to catch up on lost time.  It was fun because I was passing people like crazy.  Still, the hill was looming at mile 5.5.

The hill:  I shortened my stride and used my arms.  I was still passing people going up.   The worst part about that hill was it simply flattened out at the top.  There was no down side.  Now I don’t mind hills but I like them to be followed by a DOWN hill as a reward for the effort to get up.

After the hill, the course got very scenic, winding through cemeteries and parks, one turn after another.  There was one more very short incline, a lot of down hill there after and then I saw the lake. 

As I ran past a big guy breathing very hard, I said …”We are SO almost there!”  He said “Yeah! 1.3 to go!”.   Then I past a girl in purple who was making the run look easy.  She said “This is SUCH a tease”.  She was talking about seeing all the folks run around the lake.  You see the course enters the park then splits.  You have to go to the right to reach the 8 mile marker while the people coming up and splitting left have already run around the lake and are on their way to the finish line. 

It wasn’t that bad since it’s a nice flat race to the finish.  I crossed at 1:16:01.  Average pace was 8:10.  I placed 510 out of 1392 finishers and 17th out of 87 women.  Oh well…next year.  

Unfortunately, I didn’t hit my goal of running under an 8 mile pace but was pretty happy since my training has been wishy washy and the events leading up to the run:  Bad frame of mind, Ted’s back, no lucky earrings, NASTY NUMBER (Ted looked at the number and said “don’t keep THAT in the house), and GAS!

No pictures. Ted wasn’t there with the camera and I was too cold and miserable to carry the camera or my phone.

My right hamstring was having spasms all the way home, and that lasted all day Sunday. WHAT IS THAT PAIN, ANYWAY???? At least my feet don’t hurt. 

Do I recommend the Stockade-athon as a good15K ?  DEFINITELY!  Am I glad I ran it? FOR SURE!

If you run, what was you biggest set back that messed up your race time?

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