White River 4 Mile Classic

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't get much sleep last night (understatement, lol!) and knew that this was just going to be a get-it-done race..........

First off, I made it to our yard right at 10 pm last night, loaded up the pickup with Elsie and the bare essentials (forgot my eyeglasses though, grrr) and after a quick detour to the Love's to transfer points from my old card to a new one (btw, if you didn't get that done by midnight last night you've lost your points) and made it home to Searcy at 11:04 p.m. It then took me almost an hour to get things sort-of put away and gathered up for today's race. Blech, 0430 came way too early..........

Despite the Mickey D's coffee I was still bleary-eyed when I got to Batesville, LOL. Guess I should have made my own this morning so it would've been stronger. Oh yeah, that would have been great, me punch drunk already then add in industrial strength caffeine, Ha-ha.

Met up with Carol for my warm-up run (just over a mile) and she introduced me to one of her running partners from the Jonesboro area. This woman is just as bubbly as Carol so they definitely helped wake me up. Quite a few of the Cruisers raced today so got to catch up (conversation-wise) with several of my girls. I miss y'all!!!!!!!

The race--I've done this race the past 3 years and I was hoping this year with the new course I wouldn't have to walk. Well, there's always next year, LOL. Downhill start this year so of course I took off way too fast (7:20 first mile). Yep, it caught up with me quick, I ended up getting the sharp, needle point pain that I always get when I haven't hydrated enough the prior day at around mile 1.5. In this case it was drinking too much coffee on Friday that did me in. This is NOT a stitch, I can run through stitches albeit at a much slower pace. With this pain it's almost impossible for me to WALK and it's always on my right side just below the upper part of my ribcage. Every single blasted time this has happened I can look back on the days before and it's due to not enough hydration. I don't think matters were helped any by the bad meal that I'd eaten Thursday that had me running for the bathroom for a day and a half.

After I finally got the needle point to quit digging into my ribs I was finally able to start back running, after that I just walked for a few steps at the first water station while I grabbed a couple of sips then dumped the rest down my back.

Brenda, Cindy, and Jackie--Thanks for the words of encouragement while I was walking, it most definitely kept me going afterwards.

After that it was just put my head down and plow forward even if it was sooo much slower than what I would've liked.

Okay after all this I'm sure everybody's thinking that my finish time was really, really, slow but it wasn't! I ended up with a 4 mile personal record by just over a minute. Last year's time at Batesville was 37:16 (horrible race-still cringing from it) and my previous 4 mile pr was 34:27 from the 2008 Hot Summer Night 4 Mile at Jonesboro. This year's time was 33:18!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I still managed to p.r. with that little sleep and having to drive so much just before the race. Even my last and slowest mile was 8:44. I can't freaking believe it! Just imagine how well I MIGHT have done if I hadn't been so doggone exhausted. Notice I say might, in races there are absolutely no guarantees about how I'm going to perform.

124/274 overall
29/115 female
1/10 40-44 female age group
33:18

Afterwards was breakfast at Wyatt's with some of the Cruisers and Tala and her daughter (going blank on her name but she's a pretty amazing girl, lots of grit!). Rick so very graciously bought breakfast for all of us! He's one of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet. And sorry to all the single ladies out there, he's married to an absolutely stunning woman who's just as sweet as he is :).

Guess, I ought to add in that I decided to add on some mileage after the race to go ahead and get my 9 mile long run done for the week. After catching my breath, drinking some water, and visiting for a bit I took off to finish up. You can't imagine how relieved I was after almost 2 miles by myself when I turned a corner and saw Jeannie, Jackie, Ginny, and Rick go running by. Sped up to catch up with them and it made the rest of the miles go by much quicker. So 1.16 mile warmup, 4 mile race, then 3.9 mile cooldown, long run DONE. 5 easy miles on schedule for tomorrow then I'm going to meet Alyson and Petra for a nice flat 25-30 mile bicycle ride at 6 am.

This week is also going to be difficult to get back in time for next Saturday's 5k. It's looking like I won't be loading up until later in the week again. I've already made plans with Patti and Brice for them to pick me up at a fuel stop in Hope that morning so I don't have to drive 100+ miles to N. Little Rock then back down.