it was a strange-feeling weekend, to end a sucky week. i woke up saturday morning to low gray clouds, and a light drizzle. the rain continued, almost without interruption, through the entire weekend, and it’s still gray and threatening outside this morning. it felt almost wintery.
i ran a 5k yesterday, and for the whole last 1.1 miles, i was planning a wonderful celebratory diary entry for this morning. i find that i do this often, the habit of writing down my stories in my head, and editing them, and re-editing them to perfectly convey the crux of the story. by the time i actually get to the computer, i’ve often forgotten the story, or the wit or cleverness with which it was mentally composed. c’est la vie, i guess. but it’s a process that has become so engrained that i hardly realize i’m doing it anymore. mental composition.
anyway. the reason for the planned celebratory entry was that i thought i was finally going to break the 30 minute mark in a 5k. i did the first mile in about 9:20. woohoo! doing good. then i rounded the turn at the halfway mark and discovered that the entire second half of the race would be run into the wind, and with the rain blowing in my face. still, i hit mile 2 in 19:45 or so, and thought to myself “ok, just a little more than 10 minutes to do 1.1 miles. i can do this. i can totally do this.” and for the last 1.1 miles, i cheered myself on. when the rain blew in my eyes, i cheered myself on. when i landed in a huge puddle, i cheered myself on. i rounded the last corner, and looked for the clock. couldn’t see it. i ran a little farther, still looking for the clock.
when i finally spotted it, i saw it count “29:58…29:59…30:00…” and i was still 30 feet from the finish line. oh, the disappointment! i crossed the line in 30:12, and though i was able to subtract the 7 seconds it took me to cross the start line, it still left me at 30:05. a measly 5 seconds from what has been my goal for almost two years. sigh.
30:05 is still the fastest 5k i’ve ever officially run (previously it was 30:08), but i was so disappointed after having gone the last 1.1 miles thinking i was going to break 30 minutes. yuck yuck yuck. i hate being so damn slow.
next race, i’ll be out for blood.
after the 5k, a large group of us headed downtown to celebrate buzz’s 27th birthday with lunch at p.f. chang’s and dessert at the cheesecake factory, thus destroying any of the good running the race did us. ah well. p.f. chang’s was delicious (i’d never been there before), and as always, cheesecake makes me happy. i came home very full, and didn’t need to eat dinner. soccer was cancelled due to the fields being a swamp after the weekend of rain, so i just hung out at home and did nothing. literally, i stared at the wall for a while. then i cleaned, watched baseball, and talked on the phone. i am almost done unpacking/organizing my stuff. almost.
