Well folks, my race season for 2014 has come to an end. And really, it was probably my worst year of running. I ran less than I normally do, which made me slower than I usually am, and over all I struggled more during races this year than I think I ever had before. However, I came out of the season uninjured and still smiling so there is little to be sad about!
This past Sunday was the Lucky 7 Relay in Halifax, and the first Nor’easter for this season. Saturday night I started getting my gear together which consisted of #allthethings. Pants, and more pants and socks and extra shirts, and extra, extra shirts. Garbage bags. Ponchos. Snacks. Hats and extra hats, and scarves and gloves and mittens and umbrellas well, had you seen me getting ready you may have thought I was going on a 3 month hiking trip!
Because it is a relay race that meant that besides running my leg, there would also be a lot of standing around (in the cold rain) before/after which is why I was taking so much stuff. This was my prediction of what Sunday would look like…
Zebra Suzi (yup, that’s what I wore to run in) would be happy, and standing around Suzi in her poncho and umbrella would be cold and sad.
Sunday morning I was up around 5:45am (thanks to the time change it felt more like 6:45am) and got ready to head off to the city. We got there about 40 minutes ahead of the race start time and it was only slightly drizzling, but still really cold. The three of us got all bundled up and headed over to Citadel Hill (where the race was being held)
“The Dream Team” pre-race 😉
Debbie ran leg-1. Each leg was 7 laps around Citadel Hill, but you started out inside the fort which was pretty neat! There she goes!
This is where things got a little confusing. We thought you literally had to run 7 laps around the hill, but really you were only running 6. There was a timing mat outside by the finish line that you had to run over 7 times so your first “lap” was considered complete when you ran over it the first time only a minute or two after the start. We didn’t get that and poor Debbie ended up running an extra lap around the hill!
I was leg-2, and when I started it still hadn’t really started to rain,
(zebra bum!)
until about lap 2 when the wind really picked up and it started raining really hard. So hard that I couldn’t even see where I was going because the rain was pouring in my eyes. I knew I was going extra slow for me, but I had, had a rough week thanks to my fibromyalgia, and had taught 18 fitness classes since my last rest day the Sunday before. So I just plodded along. I knew I’d be able to finish, I just wasn’t going to be making any speed records!
Around and around the zebra went
and was called a cat. Someone even meowed at me. In my head I was screaming, “I’m not a cat! I’m a zebra!” But by then my hood was refusing to stay up so I couldn’t really blame them for not knowing.
I still didn’t really know that I didn’t have to complete 7 actual laps around the hill, and when people around me were saying, “only 2 more to go! Only one more to go!” I was thinking, what is going on here? Surely I’m not THAT slow that everyone has lapped me once or twice! On my 6th lap I started checking my GPS and it said I had less than .25 of a mile to go. When I got back around to where the water station and my friends were I stopped so we could discuss the situation…
Do we have any idea if this is my last lap?
We decided that it was so I headed off to the finish line!
Meagan was leg-3 and by then the rain was not falling quite as hard, but it was a really steady rain (and cold!). I changed in the washroom while she ran and that no doubt was harder than the run itself. Being all wet and sweaty and in a room with a super wet floor. Ugh. I was happy once I had dry(it) clothes on but it we certainly a task!
Here come dry Meagan!
We laughed because overtime she came around her grey once got a little darker. First it was just her shoulders that were wet, then her torso, and then everything but her bum!
The last leg had a lot less people in it, we discovered later that a lot of teams ran the first leg together. Probably so they could avoid the weather as it got worse, and they didn’t have to stand around for a couple extra hours. I’m pretty sure you weren’t allowed to do that so I don’t know what that will mean for their final time, but I guess they got their medals so what do they care?
Anywho, this trio finished all their laps (plus one!) and all three legs so we all have a clear conscious! After the race we walked back to the car and drove to Montana’s for lunch where we ate a whole bunch of food (which was delicious) before heading back to the Valley.
As rotten as the weather seemed during the run, I’ve certainly ran races in worse. And the valley had hail the size of golf balls Sunday morning so we were lucky to only have rain to run in!
And one of the sweetest parts of it all? The little hidden Team in Training love I found on the back of my bib when I got it Sunday morning!
Awwwwwwww