Ras na hEirann 5K Recapitulation

I’m going to do this the easy way: more pictures, less words.

First…the important things you’re dying to know. What on Earth did I wear? I spent more time than I’d like to admit planning and switching up my outfit…here are the winning details:

My trunks wore these:

 My ta-tas wore this:

My phalanges, not to be outdone, were dipped in this:

 

 We got to the start area about an hour early, which was great because we stood in line for the bathroom at McDonald’s for about 55 minutes of that. Here we are (Megan, Tobey and myself) after gratefully emptying our bladders:

Here’s the wordy part:

We waited in line with thousands of other people, jumping up and down and getting our Beiber Barry Manilow uh, music of choice lined up. Then we were off! I watched Tobey ahead of me, bobbin’ and weavin’ and lookin’ all professional about it. I then concentrated on the usual first 1/2 mile problems: don’t get run over and don’t run anyone over. I typically run an average 12 1/2 minute mile and played the songs I usually listen to in order to pace myself. Apparently I was bounding forward more than I thought because when I glanced at my watch at the 1 mile marker I had done it in 10:30. HOLY CRAP TAMMY CALM DOWN AND SLOW UP. I had been so pumped about the hills that I was taking them on like a champ.

Mile 2-3 ish were uphill like nobody’s business. I have to tell you, whoever wrote the race course description (mostly flat) should be FIRED. I walked a bit here and there, but managed to keep a slow jog for the most part when I was dying. The last bit of the race was down a bike path, so we all funneled into it and there was more pressure to run fast. I didn’t know how far the finish line was and I didn’t want to kill myself (or puke) so I did the best I could without making my breath heave. Got within sight of the finish line and BAM! 

Everyone came to a complete stop. BOOOOOOO. Cue group groan of dismay as we helplessly watched the time tick away. My goal had been to run under 39:44 (my last 5K) and hopefully more on the 35 side. When we stopped my watch was at 36 something so I guess I probably was close to 37? I’ll never know. I think my finish time on the race clock was 39:30-something. Oh well, win in my book!

We were shuttled down the road and handed (rather unceremoniously) our medals all wrapped up in plastic. Unfortunately, I think there were some multiple medal grabbers and it looked like a giant portion of the peoplerunning didn’t get one. I think that sucks and plan to write a note to the race director for sure.

Anyway, enough bitching…more pictures! After we collected our stuff and checked out the packed scene in the bars closest to the start, we decided to go to one of the further bars away and it was awesome.

While there, we listened to these guys:

And did a photoshoot with my medal and beer:

Then I went home, took an EPIC three hour nap and vegged on the couch for the rest of the night. The End.