Race #13

I had a good feeling about this race before it began, I knew it would be special. My attitude was good and I just thought I'd have fun and be able to run with my heart.

My hunch was true. I ended up with a time of 32:25 which is better than last week and I think a PR. But what made the race neat was that I did the first two miles in less than twenty minutes, which means I was hitting my current goal of a ten minute mile pace. The last mile of the race was pretty much uphill, gradual incline all the way. There were a couple times during that mile when I really wanted to walk, but I kept reminding myself that this was a race! I was hurting at the end but tried to give it a bit of a kick for the last couple blocks.

I don't think the weather was as big of a factor as I was afraid it would be. I did have on three layers of pants and four layers of tops plus a pair of socks I'd gotten at the dollar store the night before on my hands. The only part that suffered were my ears, I didn't bring a hat or headband. I think I'll get out the knitting needles when I get home and start a headband, or maybe I'll start running in one of my titty tams.

I must confess that I really didn't get to see much of Birmingham as I got in after dark and after the race just had time to shower, grab lunch and head to the airport. The snow that was so beautiful on the trees this morning is now all melted.

My next race isn't until January 9, 2010 so I've got a month to run/workout and try and get my pace faster. I know I started this and said I wasn't going to focus on time, but that very narrow streak of competitiveness in me, seems to be getting wider!

The first song on the radio when I got back into the car was John Fogerty's "Centerfield" - "put me in coach, I'm ready to play today!"

Race morning

OMGosh! I woke up early this morning and first looked out the window without my glasses on and saw puddles in the parking lot. A little bit later I looked out again, with my glasses on, and saw SNOW on the ground and trees! I was not prepared for this. I was expecting temperatures in the low 40's and totally didn't see the forecast for snow. There is still another two hours before the actual race starts so it could warm up by them. Either way, this is going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to a great run.

Race #12

Here I am, on the eve of race number 13, and I’ve yet to post the details of number 12. One would think my life was busy!

State number 11 is in the books and once again I posted a decent time (32:52) for me, I was seventh out of thirteen in my division. This was a last minute addition to the schedule largely because I could fly into Atlanta early, drive to the race site, run, drive back to the airport and fly home, all within one day.

Once again, before the race started my shirt caused a few comments and even a photo or two. I also struck up a conversation with a 68 year old lady, Jane B. who had started running just this year. She told me a story of running a race with her grandson put on by his college. He asked her not to finish before him as his buddies would never stop ribbing him if she did. She had to slow down at the end to let him pass! Go grandma!

The race started with a nice little downhill and then we went on a trail around a pond. I came out feeling good and tried to push it as we were on the trail but the path was pretty uneven and muddy in a few spots. After that it was all road and pretty hilly, though mostly gradual hills. I spent a good part of the race running with two middle aged guys. It worked out well for me as I kept pushing myself to get in front of them and then try and stay in front. They would walk up the hills and I’d run so I’d get ahead, but their long legs gave them an advantage on the downside. But I took them in the end!

I didn’t have my lucky yellow headband or eat a meal of pasta the night before. In fact, for lunch the day of the race I ate at the Yesterday Café in Greensboro, Georgia. Good southern food – chopped steak with onions and gravy, fried okra and collards – yum!

Going through the Atlanta airport on my way to my rental car I felt tug on my arm. I turned and a small elderly lady, who spoke no English, mimed that she needed help finding her gate. Through hand signals and digging through her purse I was able to locate her ticket and find the gate number. I first pointed her in the direction of the escalator thinking that was all she needed. Clearly that wasn’t enough. So I told her I’d take her to the gate, grabbed her hand and suitcase and headed for the escalator. I got on with her suitcase and thought she would get on behind me, but she was too scared. As the crowd backed up behind her I rode to the top with her suitcase. Finally a man stepped through the crowd and pretty much put her on the escalator as I stood at the top. Recognizing the situation, two other men, going up on an adjoining escalator came over and helped her get off. We headed to the gate hand in hand only to find out that the gate had been changed. The change was going to require another trip downstairs to the tram. The gate agent agreed to find a wheelchair for my new friend as I didn’t think she would survive another episode with an escalator. I waited for the chair to come then convinced her to get on it and let the wheelchair pusher take her to the correct gate. As she was being wheeled away she smiled really big at me and said “thank you,” probably the full extent of her English vocabulary. This being the Thanksgiving weekend, everyone in a rush, it was great to see so many people come together in their own little ways to help this very scared lady get on her flight to Los Angles.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Personally, I know that I am blessed with a “whole lot of abundance!!” I have a wonderful supportive family, good friends all over the country and pretty much all the material things a girl could want.

Race #11

Camille Blommer second place finisher in the women's 45-49 division in Magee Mississippi HealthTrust Scrub Run. Bet you never expected to read that?!

So now I am faced with an ethical dilemma. Do I merely bask in the glow of my second place finish and the accolades that go along with it or do I come clean with all the race statistics? Hmmmmmm?

The race was held at the sports complex on the south side of town. The course wound through the back country roads of Simpson County. I will say it was the "hilliest" course I've run so far, not my usual flat and fast. I'm convinced we ran up every hill in the county! The start was a long gradual incline, quickly followed by three short and steep uphills. I kept waiting for it to level off but it never really did. In spite of all the hills I actually felt good during the run and was okay with my time of 33:18 considering I haven't been running much as of late due to a bad sinus infection. Once again, I got into a groove during the last half of mile two, so mile three actually felt good. I think I need to have a better warm up routine.

After the race I couldn't hang around for the award ceremony but I did chat with a gal who lived about an hour and a half south, originally from New Orleans. This was her first 5K and her goal was to just run the entire race, she succeeded in that - yeah for her!! I asked her about Magee to see if I could get a better handle on the town. She really didn't know anything about it except the fact that it had been hit with a bad tornado in March that destroyed a number of homes. I asked her if she knew how the people made a living and her response was: "I've been living in Mississippi for six years and asked myself the same question when I first moved here. And after all this time I still don't know what they do!" I took it that she was probably retired as she said they moved to Mississippi because her husband was a deer hunter - to my knowledge, I don't know of any "professional" deer hunters, but I could be wrong!

Have had a hard time getting back into the groove of running since this race a couple weeks ago. This week I've stayed on track but the workouts haven't been very encouraging. Today I did my weekly 1.5 mile Duke-loop and it is still taking me 17 minutes - I need to be at 15 minutes if I ever expect to break 30 minutes. Ughhhhhhh. The journey continues!

Race #10

I've never had so much fun being so miserable! www.denvergorillarun.com

I'll get the "time" issue out of the way right away. I posted a 53:05. No that is not a transposition error, it took me just under an hour to go 3.5 miles. Now there are a lot of mitigating circumstances: I was running in a full gorilla suit, the temperatures soared into the 50's so I was overheating, altitude (this is the mile high city), I spent the last few weeks on vacation in Florida and didn't run, while in Florida the Liquor Pigs came for a long weekend for hardcore eating and drinking (of which I did partake). I promise to get back on a workout schedule.

I did have another small world story. Before the race when we were all starting to gather, I commented to this gal that I liked her handbag. This of course led to conversation and she let slip that she was from Tampa, had come in on Friday just like I had! Like me she was running the race just because she could!

I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking for this post - words just don't do it justice.

Dress rehearsal at home - all dressed up and ready to run!

At registration - helping out with a publicity photo for hand and feet warmers

"Paging Doctor Kildaire, paging Doctor Kildaire!"

Top Banana

yes, we have no bananas!

Are you good witch or a bad witch?

Speaking of witches, I went to see Wicked Friday night at the Denver Performing Arts Center. Another one of those situations where going solo pays off, there was a single seat in the 11th row, center. The performance was absolutely fabulous! I didn't really know what the story was about except that it had ties to the Wizard of Oz. For those who don't know, it is the story of the childhood of the wicked witch of the west (or east, I'm never quite sure). I recommend it highly.

Continuing on with the benefits of going solo. Wednesday night I had to decide whether to stop at the gym for a final workout before my Denver trip or go by the Durham Performing Arts Center and see if there was a ticket for the Roger Daltry show. Roger won out. Not only was there a ticket in the orchestra section, but they comped me - show, free!! Roger's voice is all but gone, but the show was just too fun. He did a lot more Who songs than I thought he would and of course the crowd just loved it. And in true aging rocker style, he couldn't resist unbuttoning his shirt bit by bit as he went through the set list until it was completely undo for "Teenage Wasted!" Thank goodness he isn't still taking it all the way off, his abs aren't what they used to be!

I digress, back to the race.

The smallest gorilla

Technology has found its way to the jungle, ugghhhhhh!!!!

Invading gorillas

Camille finally makes it to the finish line!

Later Saturday night. I just finished having dinner at an Italian restaurant on 17th St. called Panzano. If you are ever in Denver go there and have the mushroom crepes! As well as anything else on the menu as the shrimp I had was great and everything I saw them cooking looked wonderful. www.panzano-denver.com

Race #9

This weekend I realized that this big ole goofy world is really very small. I arrived at the Hartford airport Friday morning and headed to the bus stop to take the $1.25 bus into downtown versus the $42 taxi cab the hotel told me was the only option from the airport to downtown. There was another lady standing at the bus stop when I walked up. Of course, we struck up a conversation to determine if either of us was from Hartford and had taken this bus before. Negative to that but low and behold we found out we were both from Florida. Not only Florida but we were both from Sarasota and she was meeting up with about seven other people from Sarasota who were there to run the Hartford Marathon. What were the odds? We chatted about ourselves and low and behold, Donna L., my new BFF, is also retired. When she mentions she is retired from the US Postal Service, I immediately ask: “Do you know Bob and Grace G.?” “Bob and Grace?!?! I’ve known Bob long before he married Grace. In fact I even briefly worked for him.” Could the world get any smaller? Another obvious marathoner walked up to the bus stop with a Wisconsin sweatshirt on. I couldn’t help myself: “Where in Wisconsin are you from? I’ve got an Aunt in Sparta?” No, he wasn’t from Sparta and didn’t know her.

We all got on the bus and headed into downtown. The bus driver was extremely friendly and helpful. Both Donna and I wanted to get off at the last Downtown stop, you know why? We were staying at the same hotel! The bus driver ended up not only taking us to the stop we wanted, but took the bus out of service and took us to the door of our hotel. Kudos to the Hartford transit system.

Donna and I parted in the lobby with Donna planning to call me when the rest of her group arrived so we could all go over to the Xcel center and pick up our packets together. I got settled into my room and waited for Donna’s call. About 1:00pm she called to say the other people had arrived and they were gathering in the lobby. I headed down. As I was standing in the lobby waiting for the entire group to gather, I noticed a woman walking toward us. I knew her. We both pointed at each other and exclaimed “I know you!” and we did. Susan M. and I worked at Global Signal together!

What are the odds of all this happening? Craig B. said it sounded like an episode from the Twilight Zone!

I ended up having lunch and dinner with them and hopefully making a few more friends!

Susan, Mary, Gina, Donna, me, Robin and Paul – the Sarasota connection!

Now, let’s talk about the race. The race was connected to the Hartford Marathon. The 5K race started a few blocks away but had the same finish line as the “real” race. Race conditions were excellent, overcast with just a hint of periodic drizzle. With an 8:00 am start time the probability was low that the day would clear up before our race was completed. There were 957 runners in our race. I got to the start line about twenty minutes before start time so had time to scope out the competition and line up with the 10 minute milers. I decided I need to tell people I’m going to run at a 10 minute pace if I ever expect to achieve it. I did get ahead of the guy with a cane – I’m not exaggerating, there was actually a guy lined up with a bib number, D-tag and cane!

The race start was a bit chaotic, but that’s to be expected with a field of almost a thousand people. But I wasn’t expecting to have two ladies turn around right in front of me and start walking against the flow of traffic! I guess they must have realized this wasn’t the marathon! For the most part the course was flat with only gradual uphill climbs. I felt good going out and thought I had a nice pace so was pretty disappointed when I got to the one mile split and saw 11:07 displayed. I almost let myself get really bummed out and not even try to pick up the pace. At about this time I notice there was a gal with a green shirt that said “I love dirty water” on the back who was running at a pace that was just a bit faster than I was currently going. I decided I would keep up with her for as long as I could. I stayed with her through mile two and then passed her!! Yup, I got a second wind, got in the groove or not sure what, but for the last mile I actually felt better than the first and kept pushing myself to go faster. It paid off. I ended up with a PR of 32:53. That still isn’t a 10 minute pace but I’m getting closer.

I found the “I love dirty water” girl after the race and thanked her for pacing me.

Oh, about that cab fare from the airport. Fast forward to my checkout at the hotel. I politely told the desk clerk that a bus option did actually exists and maybe they should make a note of that so that when future guests call they can tell them about that option instead of just saying the only way to get to the hotel from the airport is via the rather expensive taxi option. The clerk thanked me but then pointed to a guy leaning on the counter and said he was the best cabbie in town and would only charge me $36. The light bulb went on; do you think someone’s getting a kickback?!?

Next up, the Great Gorilla Run in Denver, Colorado. I just found out that the course is actually 3.5 miles not 3.1. I'm anxious to see how this race goes - a longer course, full gorilla suit, cold weather and a mile of altitude.

Motivation

How do people stay motivated? Last week should have been a hardcore week of running and working out but on both Friday and Saturday I found excuses not to run or work out. It makes me so mad because not only do I need to train but I do feel so much better when I exercise. I had a nice run Sunday but only went 3.1 miles when I should have gone farther.

It is rainy today so I'm going to head to the gym this afternoon and do some sprints on the treadmill. In fact, I'm going to try an 8 minute pace for my quarter mile sprints. If you hear a big thunk around 2:30pm EST, it is me being thrown off the treadmill!!