Today I did my first brick of the season. Well, it was kind of a brick. With a really long transition. Like 40 minutes between the bike and the run. Does that count as a brick?
I got up early, and even though I really wanted to go back to bed, I headed out on my bike at 6am. I rode up to Centerville for an hour, then turned around and came back. Man, it was so fun cruising back down Orchard Lane on that slight downhill. That's my favorite thing about cycling!
Getting towards the end of my ride, I started to get really hungry. I had eaten a good size bowl of granola with bananas before I left, and taken a hammer gel at the half-way point so I didn't expect to get that hungry! I guess it's time to get some Perpetuem again. I don't remember ever getting that hungry using that.
For the last 20 minutes or so, all I could think about was the blueberry lemon cookie from RubySnap that Tammy, the owner, had promised us when we met up before the Race for the Cure. She was the one who got me to sign up and join her team. I love RubySnap - best cookies in the world!
I went strait to the Gateway where Pete and the kids were waiting for me. Pete was so sweet to get up early, pack all the kids up and fight the crowds just to bring me my shoes so I could do this as a brick. I also needed to feed George. I was supposed to be at our meeting spot at 8:10 to get together with my team from RubySnap, but I was a little late. By the time I got George fed, it was already past that time so I gave up on finding them. I was so sad to not be getting that cookie! I was starving by now!
Mostly I just needed to get to a bathroom before the race started though. I went inside, but there were like a million people in line. There were supposed to be port-a-potties too so I wasted a lot of my time running around looking for them. I couldn't find them, though, and by the time I got to the bathroom, it was time for the race to start. No big deal, though. There were so many people, I wouldn't have been able to start at the start anyway.
I just started my timer when I went under the balloon arch start. At least this way I had a lot of people to pass. And I mean a lot! I could not believe how many people there were! The streets were packed! I took this picture probably 15-20 minutes after I finished when we were walking back to the car. It was like that the whole time I was running, and they just kept coming!
I'm so glad so many people came out to support such a great cause, but it's not my idea of a good race when there's that many people. Mostly because of the bathroom and start line issue. It was kind of fun to be part of something so big, though. It was also fun to weave in and out of all the people the whole time, it made me feel really fast! On the other hand, I didn't feel like I was going very fast.
When I got to the 2 mile mark, my timer was at about 18 minutes! I thought I'd been going pretty slow. This reminded me to finally check my heart rate. It was at 180 so I allowed myself to believe that I really was keeping a pretty good pace, and tried to keep it up until the end. I saw Pete and Elle at the top of the Energy Solutions Arena stairs, and waved to them. It was so fun seeing them, and I was so glad they came even though I know it probably wasn't very fun for Pete. I'm so grateful to him for being so supportive!
It got pretty congested at the end, and I wondered why all these people were still going so slow when were were at the finish! I sprinted in, and it was awesome to look at my watch and see 29:09!
That's 20 seconds faster than last week! Wahoo! It's weird that I didn't really feel like I was going faster. It was either because I was all warmed up from my bike ride, or the adrenalin from having to pass people the entire time. I don't know, but it was a fun race!
I happily took an orange at the finish line, and set to work peeling it before I did anything else. I was so hungry! Then it took me a while to find Pete and the kids since it turned out he had to take them to the bathroom. Once we were all back together, we decided to go out to breakfast. Pete said he'd ride my bike home if I got the kids to the car. We had to walk a ways to get to the car, but George just sat in his sling and everybody was happy. It was also just such a beautiful day so I didn't mind!
We picked Pete up and went to Coachman's for breakfast. We were all starving because they hadn't had time to eat anything before they left, and it was after 10 by now. When we got home, George took a super nap which was really good because I started to feel kind of sick. I don't know if it was from being so hungry for that run or from stuffing myself with french toast, eggs and sausage afterwards....
Great workout, great cause, great day!
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