August 14, 2010. Orlando
This was a rough morning. I don't know what ELSE could have gone wrong. I didn't drink enough Friday, so I went to bed already feeling dehydrated. No wake up call, but thankfully I got up on my own just before they should have called. Left my water bottle on the counter at the hotel room and I missed the Starbucks and had to drive a few miles before I was able to do a u-turn. I really needed that morning cup of coffee! :D I managed to find the right exit off the interstate, but was then stopped by a train for a few minutes. I finally got parked, on the top floor of the garage, with only 10 minutes to race start. I ran down the stairs at the parking garage, ran to packet pickup and then pack to the car to drop off the shirt. With a couple of minutes to spare, I was able to get in a quick line for the porta pottie (wow!). Very hot already and HUMID. No breeze.
There were alot of runners out for this race. I expected that after seeing that last year had over 1500. I put my self in between the 8 and 9 min mile signs. We got started with out to much delay. There was a hill in the first mile. I was surprised to see that! My first mile was 9:45. WHAT! That's crazy slow for me. I wore my smaller sized running skirt and noticed about this time that it was sliding down my bum! I had to tuck it into my waist band of my compression shorts to keep it up. I had to keep checking it every once in a while to make sure it was still up. Geesh. No more skirts from this company. I wore it last week, and I guess my waist pack had kept the skirt in place. The second mile was still tough. I walked through the water station at mile 2. I made it about another half mile before I had to walk. I never do this in a 5K! I was just not feeling great. I walked for a couple of minutes and then made myself get going again.
I must have gained some speed somewhere because my finish time was 29 minutes! Garmin showed only 3 miles and not 3.1. It was a major bummer that my time was so slow, but I'll shake it off. Next race will be better.I need to remember that it is the hottest month of the year in Florida. :)
