Headed to the Poorhouse

I told him we'd pay him a dollar a bag.

I think I may need more bags:

(And dollars)

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Dear God, Please Let There Be Somebody Behind Me to Read This...

Funniest shirt I saw in today's race.

(I laughed as I passed her. Heh heh.)

Yup, I'm the proud owner of a "Finisher" tee:

It was a fab day for a race - sunny and not too hot. Fairly cold at 4:45 this morning when we got up, though.

If you've never been in one, races are really quite fun. Nice people shout encouragement at you the whole way, and there's free drinks every couple of miles. Also, the people-watching is mah-ve-lous - it's an entire subset of humanity that you don't ever really see. There's the hardcore runners - they're wearing singlets and those shorts with vents up the side. There's the think-they're-hardcore runners - lots of fancy gear (water belts? for a supported 10 mile?) and cool gazes sizing you up.

My favourites are the old runners - white hair, shuffling gait. They wear whatever they want and they just don't care what they look like or how fast they're going.

I definitely don't think I'm an awesome runner, but I did do a personal best today, so yay me! Last year I did 10 miles in 1:49, which was already vast improvement on the first time I raced.

This year I did it in 1:39 - I took ten whole minutes off! Plus, my training over summer has been lackadaisical at best, so I'm really happy.

Also really sore.The Husband was right; there ARE lots of hills on the course.

But my favourite reason for running races? These babies:

After you cross the finish line and the nice people give you a medal, there's all this free stuff to pick up to replenish your body. I like the bananas and the powerade and the chips okay, but it's these salted nut rolls that totally make it all worth it. I never buy them (that whole peanut allergy thing), so they're my post-race treat.

So, all in all, an awesome race. And now that I'm back up to 10 miles, I can work towards the next level in my training program. I'm running a half marathon in December! It's a destination race - hint: it involves slot machines and Journey tribute bands. And they shut down the Strip. And it's at night.

Wonder if they have salted nut rolls, too?

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Ready...Set...

It's race day tomorrow!

I signed up for the TC10 waaaay back in June, back when I had only recently stopped running longer distances and back when I figured it would be easy to get back up there.

Urgh.

But, I bought my new shoes so some style and some fear have kicked my butt back into gear a bit. Of course, school starting plus the stomach flu has kept my training miles since then down to a not very respectable 40ish. (Clinging to that "ish"!)

I'm not nervous; more ambivalent. I definitely don't feel ready, but at the same time don't care a whole lot about how well I do, since the entire point of races for me is to set up some kind of a tangible goal. I am a tad concerned about the course; the other day The Husband (who has run this course two years in a row) said, "you know there's hills, right?"

No. I did not.

Wish me luck!

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