Happy Sunday! I was so thankful to be able to sleep in this morning to recover from the past 24 hours.
Yesterday started nice, early and extremely wet at 6am.
When I woke up for the Messa 8K For H2O it was down pouring, seriously, cats and dogs were falling from the sky. I think I spent the entire hour before I had to leave trying to come up with a good excuse not to. But in the end, I had already made the commitment so I tossed on my older pair of Mizuno Inspires and headed to the race.
I wasn’t excited at all… In fact, I was pretty unmotivated. The only thing that did make me happy was that Dan was nice enough to let me use his NorthFace rain/wind jacket.
Of course it was huge on, but the wrists have adjustable velcro straps so I was still able to use my hands and wear my Nike+. Making it not so bad.
Once I got to the race, packet pick-up was super quick. They were serving up coffee, bagels, muffins and such during this pre-race event too which I thought was kind of strange.
There was a lull in the down pour and for a while I thought that perhaps we might get lucky!
No rain? It actually looks quite pretty!
I think the rain kept a lot of people away because I remember this race having a pretty decent turn out in the past. This time around the field was… small. Which always makes me nervous: only the hardcore runners come out in the rain, right?
Anyways, I waiting in my warm car until the start. Of course all the while, contemplating a quick get away. But again, I sucked it up and knew it was too late.
The race started and so did the rain. Ugh. So glad for Dan’s jacket!
The first 1/2 mile was spent giving myself a “suck it up and just run” speech. Right after this speech concluded, I was faced with a new issue: flooding!
There were parts of the road so flooded that the water came to my calves. I might have reacted like a girl at the first flood zone (the classic panic expression wondering how I could go around it), but afterwards I realized it wasn’t THAT BAD, in fact, even though my feet felt like bricks with all the water inside my shoes, it was kind of fun.
I am glad I had this mental change because we had about a half dozen calf-high flood zones during the 8K course.
Remember how I said I was excited to see how I could beat my previous time?
Results
Well, I did! But not the 10 minutes I wanted, I’ll give myself a break… I was running through water with more water coming down. My official time was 40.31 (my goal had been 37).
I took this after I finished, not while I was going towards it. Cheering peeps on.
But even still, I got 1st in my age group and 5th overall female. I’ll take it!
Once I crossed the finish line, I was surprised once more… no water bottles! They had a large water cooler with “serve yourself” cups which I did, but I’ve never been to a race that didn’t have water bottles.
Another thing missing? Post race concessions. This was a let down, especially since they had a pre-race spread. There wasn’t even an apple available to us. I hardly ever eat right after a race but considering it had been almost 4 hours since my breakfast I was really counting on that apple.
With the rain coming down, the lack of recovery fuel and soaking wet clothes I quickly changed into dry clothes (thanks for the suggestion Amy) before heading home.
From soaking to dry, and yes those are Dan’s flannel pants!
I wouldn’t call it a glorious feelin’ but it was sort of nice runnin’ in the rain!
I will say that I know it’s not a reflection of what I am capable of during “ideal” conditions… so of course I was pretty hard on myself at first, but then I decided to chill out. After all, I was running!
There were times during my run that I was mad at myself for signing up but then I had a moment of clarity at mile 4: I am a runner.
For the past year if someone asked me if I was “a runner” I would shrug and simply say, “well, I like to run, but I don’t call myself a runner.” You know what… I’ve run races varying from 5Ks to 1/2 marathons just within the past 12 months. I laced up my shoes during a monsoon and ran through mini-lakes so I have decided to change my answer:
Yes, I am a runner.
Suggestions For The 2014 Messa 8K:
Skip the pre-race fuel (every runner should be ready to run, not eat)
Have post-race fuel
Invest in a mic… 1-2-3 Go was really hard to hear until someone pushed me in the back to make me move.
Overall
It was a fun race, I learned a lot about myself and I love running on Folly Beach! It’s extremely flat and void of wind = awesome. Next year I will have the PR I was going for.
I Do’s: Photo Recap
After the race I got some work done then spent some time to look like a lady. Wearing fitness clothes all the time leads to major excitement when I actually get to wear something dressy.
The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride. Congrats to Jennie and Ryan! Here are a few of the pictures we were able to snap last night.
Their first dance as Mr and Mrs. Jennie wore her Mom’s wedding gown, it looked amazing!
Me and the hubs… we clean up pretty well! 
Remember Carol!? It was great to see her again.
Gorgeous Hydrangeas for the flowers
The Tams played great shag music!
Classic white cake with a vanilla buttercream icing.
How was your weekend?
If someone ask you “what do you do”, what’s your response?