Normally I tend to walk around pen-free. Or maybe with just a single black ballpoint. But during launch week, when I am busy busy busy I am preparing all my products and numbers the flight, my pen collection grows. There are three: black pen, red pen, highlighter. Black pen for writing all my notes. Highlighter for illuminating the notes that are more important. Red pen for fixes all the wrong things I find in our procedures, which are in desperate need of an update.
Three pens hanging on my lanyard. It’s a sure sign that I’m running around crazily doing something.
I only had to spend four hours at work today, so that’s not too bad. Tuesday is pretty much the worst possible launch day I could’ve asked for in terms of having to work or not work on the weekend. A launch Tuesday means the products that I need, the ones that are due three days before launch, are released on Saturday. The flight design people were ahead of the curve and got them out late yesterday afternoon (hooray for them), but I decided I’d rather work Saturday than Friday night.
I’m sleepy though. I got up this morning to head to Galveston with Debbie and Jason for the D’Feet Breast Cancer 10K. Because I was scheduled to do 8 miles today, I ran a bit before the race. (The race didn’t start until 9:00 but we got there at 7:45 to register, so there was plenty of time.) I have no idea how long it took me to run those miles because I pulled my Garmin out of the bag to discover it was completely dead. I just charged it a few days ago, so I’m stumped. Who knows. I didn’t even know how far I’d run in my pre-race jaunt — I just guessed that it would be about right — but Google Maps says it was 1.55 miles, so my total for the day was 7.75. Close enough.
I also don’t know how long it took me to run the 10K itself, since my watch was dead and they had no clock at the finish line. Well, they had a clock — but it was blank. Nada. Turned off, or broken. It was chip timed, but we left before they posted my results. And they aren’t online yet. So I have no clue. I think I did somewhere around 1:10 but I’m really not sure. The first 4 miles went really well. I ate a gu at the turnaround and that carried me through mile 4 and a bit farther feeling great. But once we left the seawall (where the ocean was sparkling in the morning sun and Galveston actually looked gorgeous for a moment), I faded.
The last couple miles were tough. The fact that the race didn’t start until 9:00 negated the incredible cool temperatures of the early morning. By the time we were running, the sun was up and shining intensely, and there was no shade on the course. My cheeks are still flushed 7 hours later.
I think I’m done with the breast cancer races though. After Race for the Cure last year and D’Feet today, I’m tired of the crowds. Or rather, I’m tired of the hoopla. I can deal with crowds — the numbers at the marathon never bother me. But there’s something about the hoopla surrounding these large events that starts to bug me. Too many people just milling around. It took me forever to navigate the crowds and strollers to finally get water and food once I finished.
I support the cause, but I think in the future I’d rather send a donation straight to the organization rather than deal with the race crowds.