4th of July 4 Miler From A Runners Perspective

The  tale of my 4th of July racing experience is rather amusing, so here it is from my perspective.

Thursday night, July 3, 2014

What time do I need to wake up in the morning? Let’s see…the race is at 7:30 a.m., I’d like to be downtown by 6:30 a.m….so 5:30 a.m. it is!

Goodnight!

Friday morning, July 4, 2014

Is it morning already? Yes, because I see daylight through the blinds….DAYLIGHT?! What?

It’s 6:56 a.m. OMG what did I do?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Grab my clothes…put them on…no time for shoes and socks now, I’ll put those on in the car. Turn on the hot water for tea, feed the dogs, don’t worry about my hair – I have a hairbrush and hairspray in the car. (Yes, I do.)  Can’t forget the foam roller…I’ll do that right before the race begins.

Breakfast? A banana will do. I usually eat a Clif bar but there’s no time to sort through them now.  A banana will have to do.

7 a.m. and I’m in the car…..whew…..good, I think I’ll be ok. Wait a second, I got ready in 4 minutes? It’s a record!

Text from my dad…are you here? Well, you see what had happened was… and it’s not actually funny at this moment, but it will be later.

7:15 a.m. whew I made it! At least I won’t miss the race altogether. Here goes my warm-up…sprint to the registration table, grab my shirt, sprint back to my car, foam roll, put on my flip belt and grab a set of headphones….done!

Oh look! There’s my dad…I’ll ask him to take a picture for me!

Guess it’s time to line up, looks like everyone else is! Here goes nothing!

By the way, what’s the weather look like? I forgot to check! It is kinda cool out here, but the sun is beating down and the humidity is high. It’ll be ok…just keep moving.

Time to start my music before I hear the gun go off! Wait….what’s going on? My headphones are DEAD?! Let me reset my phone, maybe it’s the phone. Nope, it’s definitely the headphones. Dangit. No time to run back to my car, the race is going to start in 2 minutes. I’m running this race by myself and I won’t have music. This should be interesting.

What a day, and the race hasn’t even started yet.

Here we go! Ok keep a steady pace, don’t overdo it. Oh look! There’s my dad! Hi dad…hiiiiii…wave frantically because he still can’t see me….HIIIIIII!

I got this, I know this course, I’m going to be ok. I’m not thinking about my PR…how in the world did I manage that one, anyway? Oh wait, stop thinking about it. Keep moving on.

Aww look at the puppy dog with it’s owner watching us run by…hi sweet puppy!

Focus.

Keep running.

Where’s the water? I’ll need it soon!

I’m glad they repaved this road, it’s not so bad anymore.

I like this song – I’m glad this runner has his music playing out loud! Maybe I’ll tag behind them for a little while. Nope, they’re too slow for me…find someone else!

Water…thank goodness. I’ll stop for like 2 seconds to chug a gulp. That feels better.

I think I’ll pace behind that girl in the blue shirt…she’s setting a decent pace.

Whew, made it to 2 miles…my pace is too fast for me, I don’t know if I can keep this up for much longer. Turnaround the nice cone….

Whoa. Where did that headwind come from? Oh great…now I have to deal with a headwind for 2 miles. My pace will definitely suffer now.

Why in the world is water only at one point (coming and going) along this course? It’s HOT and it’s JULY in SWLA. I need water.

Oh look! It’s a running group friend…hi! You’re doing great!

Water guns? Ok sure, spray me…that feels really nice, actually. Wait, dude…you aimed for my face, now my glasses are all wet. Thank you.

There’s the girl in the blue shirt again! This headwind must be slowing her down, too. Crazy.

One mile to go…I don’t think I’ll PR, so it’s ok to slow my pace down a little. Aaahhh that’s nice. My lungs can fully expand now.

There’s the finish line, with about 0.3 to go. Wait a second! I miscalculated! I CAN PR! Pick up the pace, Karen you’re almost done. Uhoh…I hope I don’t have a finish line incident like the last time I ran this race. Just breathe and give it all you got….

There’s my dad again! Hi dad!!

Going…going…going…YES! A PR!

Whew that was rough!

Water? A koozie? No, I need WATER. H2O. Oh, it’s over there…ok, thanks.

(Yeah, for serious, I was handed a koozie and a number as soon as I crossed the finish line…I had to go hunt down the water.)

Oh my gosh I’m shaking so bad and I feel so spent of my energy, I can’t even bend down to open an ice chest.

(Thanks to my dad and the other nice guy who were standing there and helped me out!)

Well, that was fun! I’ll fill out my card and turn it in, although I am 100% sure I didn’t place. I still wanna hang around for the awards ceremony anyway.

Time to say goodbye to my dad…thanks SO much for coming out and supporting me! I love you!

After saying goodbye to my running group and my dad, I headed off to Panera for a to-go breakfast. I had a friend coming over and wanted to have breakfast with her when she arrived.

WHAT a crazy day! I couldn’t believe I overslept. I NEVER do that. Then, my headphones wouldn’t work…I just knew I was doomed. Thankfully, I still managed to pull out a PR and finish out strong.

I always have crazy dreams that something like that will happen to me in WDW, but I never dreamed it would actually happen to me at home.

Have you ever woken up super late for a race? Did you still attempt to make it to the start line?