Awesome Alpharetta 10K

It was a dark and stormy night. No, wait a minute. That's someone else's story.

The alarm on my watch went off at 4:30 AM. On important days, I really have this fear of not hearing the alarm. I try to set two, just to make sure, but my alarm clock has never failed me before. I shut off the watch, killed the alarm clock, and rested my head back on the pillow. I heard the pattering of rain and I groaned as Dee Dee jumped out of bed and into the shower. I secretly hoped that the noise I heard was just the fan, and it was actually clear and cool outside. After Dee Dee got out of the shower, I dragged my sorry carcass out of the bed and to the window. Yup. It's raining. Just as predicted. Imagine that. The weatherman got it right. Crap. I threw on my clothes that I had laid out next to the bed. Running shorts. Socks. Long sleeve technial shirt. The twin wonders. All set and ready to go. Dee Dee and I grabbed some breakfast, Frosty Flakes!, pinned our bibs on our shirt, and took off for the race.

Dee Dee and I waved to the police officer as we passed through Woodstock. I guess he didn't have anything better to do than sit in the middle of the road at 5:30 in the morning. We arrived at the race plenty early, around 5:50 AM I believe. The rain was light to moderate, and we both kept wishing for a break before our race. The race site in Alpharetta was lit up like a Christmas Tree. We parked the car in public parking and walked over to the tent to get our chips. Everyone else was wrapping theirs around their ankle. I put mine around my wrist. Now that I think about it, that might not have been a good idea, but it worked for me. After getting our chips, we headed for cover under the awnings of one of the stores. We weren't there for 10 minutes and it hit me. I better visit the port'o'potty. I always have to go before reffing or running, and I knew better to leave the house first. We walked across main street and asked one of the security guys where the bathrooms were. He pointed me to a location that was setup for festivities, but vacant, with three port'o'potties all to myself. Dee Dee and I then spent the next 10 minutes standing under the awning, trying to keep warm and watching it rain.

Shortly there after, Mr. Announcer Guy declared that the Half Marathon was going to start in five minutes. Dee Dee and I left our sanctuary and found a new spot under an awning on main street. We watched the 800 plus runners line up for the half. Right before they kicked off, we crossed the street and got under a tree. Some dude with a big tatoo on his back was running without his shirt top. More power to him. Mr. Announcer Guy did his countdown. The half marathon was started, and Dee Dee and I moved to a tree near the start of the 10K. At this point, the rain is still comming down pretty steady, and it is 45 degrees. Dee Dee and I joked about starting the race from under the tree, but within about two minutes of our start, we moved into the back of the pack with the other 150+ 10Kers. The announcer started his countdown. I gave Dee Dee a kiss, and we were off. Our race started five minutes after the half.

The first mile of the race was pretty level and much of it was down hill. I was pretty much soaked by the time I went for the first half mile. Once I warmed up however, I thought to myself. This isn't half bad! I remembered Michelle's post on how much she loved running in the rain. She would have been right at home. As I passed the first mile marker, I checked my time. I completed the first mile in 9:08. I was pretty pleased with myself, although I doubted I'd be able to turn in any negative splits. Around mile two, I walked through my first water station. I gave myself the luxury of walking for around 15 seconds. I then took off again and found my "groove". I lost all sense of time and distance. By the time I realized, I had already blown past miles 2 and 3, and traversed a long half to three quarters of a mile up hill. My watch read 27+ minutes. The route than made a right into an office park where the downhills and uphills got steeper. This was kind of the turn around point, and Dee Dee yelled and waved at me as I was on my way back out and she was on her way in. I finally discovered the marker at mile 4 and noted the time on my watch. It was 37 minutes and some change. It was about that time that I began to believe I could do this in sub-60.

Mile 4 was pretty tough, which was a suprise for me. In my training runs, it is usually mile 4 where I am my strongest. There was another long up hill, and I had to take my second walk break of the day. I ended up walking four times, but never more than 30 seconds, and twice for around 15 seconds. It was on this mile that I passed two people I had been tailing for a while, and nobody had passed me since about mile two. When I saw the mile marker at 5, I realized the race was almost over, and I had 12 minutes to beat the sub-60. I turned it up a notch, giving it everything I had. I passed two more people. The police officer, who was directing the runners into the mall parking lot came into sight at mile 6, and I ran out of gas. I had to walk another 15 seconds or so. Only two-tenths of a mile left. I needed to finish strong. I took off at a sprint. Passed another gentlemen. Then I saw the finish line. I ran with as much strength as I could muster. The onlookers were cheering! Yea! That was so cool. As I neared the finish line, some folks held up the victory ribbon and I thought, "That for me?" This is really cool. Right as I neared the finish line, they lowered it to the ground as I ran over the top. I had finished. As I sat there and gasped for air, the winner of the half marathon came in behind, broke the tape, and claimed his prize. "Hey, wait a minute! I'm important too!", I thought. LOL. I high fived the winner of the half and joked about not letting him beat me. Put that in your bag and stuff it! Yea! I beat the half marathon winner by four seconds!!

I grabbed my medal and a bottle of water and headed up to the concession tents to wait for Dee Dee. I expected her to come in around 1:30, but I was pleasantly suprised when she arrived early, at 1:26 and some change. She did awesome. While I was waiting, freezing, in the cold morning, I found out we could have put a bag on a truck instead of leaving all of our warm clothes in the car! Oh, well. Live and learn.

I don't usually get all emotional over the things I accomplish. The last time I completed something and came to the point of tears was a 14+ mile hike I made in basic training. When I crossed the finish line and saw the time on my watch, 1:00:23, I was just amazed. I had missed my kick-ass time by a mere 23 seconds. 30 seconds on the official time.

Dee Dee and I went home and went back to bed for two hours. I then got up and went off to my ref duties. I can say that running a 10K and doing two matches isn't nearly as hard as doing four soccer matches in a day. As I thought back about the race, the rain, the cold, the experience, I can sum the whole thing up in a single word: unbelievable.

Finish strong!

Wes

ORN: 6.2 miles, 1:00:30, race pace, 9:45 miles, walk as needed