Running in reality

In my mind, I envisioned cheering on the kids as they ran in a quarter-mile fun run last Friday night, after which I would run the Park Point five miler, and then Jeff would take a wonderful photo of us all smiling at the finish line. Maybe a photo to replace the one on this page. What a happy, healthy family we are!

Right.

In reality, Jeff and the kids got stuck in traffic and totally missed the kid races. By the time they got to Park Point, the road had been blocked off for the race, so the best they could do was stand at the turn-around point. And this is the only picture Jeff took.

The picture in my mind was so much better!

In my imagination, it was also much, much cooler.

The forecast was for temperatures in the mid 70s. I can handle that. I remember telling Jeff on the morning of the race that if it was any hotter than that, I'd skip it. I don't need another race t-shirt that badly that it's worth running in high heat. 

But then I spent all day at work mentally preparing myself to run. And so, when I stepped outside at 4:30 p.m. and discovered it was 85 degrees, I couldn't back down. I drove to the race, doing my best to get there before the 5 p.m. cut off for registration. Silly me. I could have gotten there an hour later and still had plenty of time.

When the race finally started at 6:30, it was still really hot. I carried a small water bottle with me, and drank it all by the half way point. As I approached the turn-around spot, I saw Jeff and the kids. AJ was cheering on the runners. Sydney was sitting on a lawnchair, immersed in a game on her iPod. I had to call her name to get her to look up.

I tossed the empty water bottle to Jeff and kept running. Thank goodness the nice people who live along the race course turned on their sprinklers for us. The last mile was brutal. Probably because I thought I'd reached it much sooner, so to be nearing the end (again, in my mind) and then hear a timekeeper holler out "four miles", it's a bit of a downer.

My chip time was 43:39, which for me - especially in that heat - is phenomenal. Too bad it'll never show up if you google my name. Dana Kapel, however, had a great race.

Getting off Park Point became the next challenge. Because there's just one road, and people are running on it, no one can leave until everybody finishes. And then, everybody has to stop at the one stop sign along the road. And then, just when you think you're home free... the lift bridge goes up. I was within two block of beating it. Instead, I got to wait, along with a couple hundred other sweaty, stinky runners, for 21 minutes before the ship even reached the bridge, and then another seven minutes before the bridge went back down.

To the bridge operator, you are not my friend.

To the guy at the four mile mark, I'm not liking you much either.

To the person who couldn't type my name correctly, how do mistake a z for a p? Those keys are on opposite ends of the keyboard, so you can't even blame it as a typo.

But that Dana Kapel... she seems like someone I'd like to run with. I might not be able to keep up, but I'm sure I look better than her when I run. I can see it clearly in my mind.