Started off fabulous until Wednesday...not so good, crisis at work happened and had to fly to Atlanta leaving me working from Wednesday directly off of my 4 mile speed work session run to the wee hours of night, waking up at 5am flying to Atlanta, working till 11pm, flying home at the ass crack of dawn, drive back from Newark to say Happy Birthday to my man, shower, check email, and leaving to do focus groups till 9:30 pm, running home feeding dog and off to Mike's Beyond Dishonor show at Club Risque (yes the strip club...)
to see my man in all his glory...
hang out with my friends...
and an excellent rendition of Welcome to the Jungle - metal style.
Followed by getting home when the birds are chirping, sleeping (again, no workout) and running to Philly pick up race packet for Broad Street and dealing with Phillies tailgating (smelling bbq and passing beer pong and wishing I was there instead). Home in time to cook while Mike is getting a Thai Yoga Massage by my BFF - Jojo the ninja (that's what we call her - she teaches Martial Arts and could kick anyone's ass)
so I can make his bday (my pre-race) dinner complete with Red Velvet Cupcakes.
I have to say (patting myself on the back) that I made the most awesome dinner of grilled filet with chianti salt straight from Dario's butcher shop in Tuscany, roasted parmesan potatoes, green beans in orange juice and red velvet cupcakes (I only ate 1/2) and
drinking a glass of our wine we bought in Tuscany from 2007 - a 2004 bottle of Castello d' Albola Le Elleyre (yum).Bed at 11pm, get up at 4:45am (now I am used it this week) and going back to Philly- yet another 1 hour drive. But what makes it all worthwhile is when one of your friends, our resident bike mechanic, comes to your house with the latest flavors of GU!! My new fave blackberry - yummy....
If anyone has ran the Broad Street run you understand the fiasco and the trial and tribulations of getting to the start line. You park at the stadium, you walk to the subway filled with (did they say 30,000 people) crammed like sardines for 20 minutes (did I mention I am claustrophobic), get to the other side of broad street - wait in line for 30 minutes for a port-a-potty where a fight breaks out (yeah PHILLY) between two women "butting in line" where one screams "I am going to sh%$ my pants."Lovely! This was in my line...so you do your business and wait with the cow herd for 2 hours (by now pre-race breakfast is gone and you are starving and you don't want to eat any of your 2 gels in the rare case you may lose one), the heat is starting up - by now it's in the 80s & it is humid.
I haven't run in heat since August 2009!!! And then you walk 4 blocks with the cattle herd just to move up to the start line.
The four of us (Christine, Bill, Nicole and I) start off (we lost the other three) in a what I call a "non-moving jog" to trying to dart in and out of people like a game in this claustrophobic mess of a first mile. It wasn't enough to have 20,000 people like last year, we always need to make it BIGGER...by allowing 10,000 MORE people to join in.
Christine and I are going at a good pace when I look at the mile 2 clock - we took 12 minutes for the first mile due to getting around people and then settling into a 9 min/mile pace. Heat is coming on, humidity is up there. You have the Philly fans the whole way, you are slapping hands, listening to bands and at mile 5, you are just not ready for the heat, your legs are slowing, every water-stop takes 40 seconds off your time and where is the GATORADE?????
I start to hear the Mummer's at mile 7 and I think this is when Christine and I get our groove back. We start to run through the fire hydrants, stopping and wasting time at every water stop, people are dropping in the middle of the road? Seriously??? WTF? Then I hear out of a window the "Rocky" song...very encouraging...you are excited about being from the Philadelphia area at this point.
More people are down - they said 30 passed out - then the 1/4 mile shoot - claustrophobia and the weird calf cramp is preventing me from sprinting....
Then we are done!! I was happy until I see my time with 10:15 miles...not necessarily what I was going for but then I heard the Kenyans were 3 min slower than last year and the fast 7min milers were 5 min slower so I guess I don't feel as bad...
We go to Christine's parents' house for breakfast and have a fabulous spread complete with Adobo Chicken, my favorite.
Home and then lay around and not leave the couch...
Oh and did I tell you about the fabulous shoes
and my new William Rast jeans, the James Perse skhirt (not a typo - it can be worn as a skirt or a shirt - LIKE MULTIPLES - please tell me someone remembers them!!!!)????? BTW - those Sam Edelman were out of stock and I got a different pair...
What a weekend!!
On to week 2...
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