Runner #986 Reporting for Duty

Here's the rundown:

• 6:15 am - I stopped by Starbucks and the grocery store before heading down to Lincoln. I grabbed a grande coffee and a power bar. I'm not usually a Power Bar guy. Apparently, there are 5000 choices. I choose the one with a pretty wrapper.
  
• 6:30am - On the way down, I tried to get myself in a zone by listening to The Beatles Love album. I highly recommend it!
• 7:15am - Got there pretty early. I'm one of those people that say if registration starts at 7:30a, I'll be there at, well, 7:15a. It's just who I am. I've lived to deal with it.
• 7:20am - Got race bib, packet, and some "goodies". Goodies include: 1 State Farm long sleeve t-shirt, 1 State Farm letter opener, 1 State Farm key chain, 1 State Farm nail file. All stuffed in a HUGE State Farm plastic bag. Nice. Glad I made the trip.
• 7:25am - I have an hour and a half to burn off some nervous energy. I sit in the waiting area and people watch. It's the same for every race. There are those that are taking this wayyyyy too seriously and those that aren't. My personal favorite was the hippy with the Nebraskans For Peace t-shirt. I'm not exaggerating the hippy part . You'll just have to trust me. He was like a cross between Chong and George Carlin. *editor's note - see below
  
• 7:45am - I run into my "coach". In all actuality, she's my department head at work. She just happens to be in the Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame for Cross Country. How convenient is that?
  
• 8:00am - The kids 1 mile run starts. While that's going on, I decide to test out the IT band by running around the State Farm campus.
  
• 8:02am - Good! No real pain! I need to stretch out a little more, but I'm good to go! I'm very psyched!
• 8:45am - Run into some more teachers from my school. We talk about what are goals are for the race. I'm hoping for a 1:30:00 time for this run (10 miles).
  
• 8:50am - The race director announces that iPods can't be used on the course. Even though about 40% of the runners are still wearing iPods, I take mine off and give them to a friend who's not in the race.
• 8:55am - I want my iPod back. What are they going to do? Stop all of us? I frantically search for the guy with my iPod.
• 8:59am - Starting gun goes off. Shit.

MILES 0-1: We run around the campus before heading off onto a trail. I see a lot of runners on the sidelines cheering us on. Am I on the wrong race? Am I doing the 5K?

The trail is crushed limestone. OK. I'm hip to the new surface. Here's the problem: The trail is only about 8 feet wide. Passing is going to be tricky. Especially the 4 ladies that want to talk to one another while on this excursion. It's like they're at the mall. Fannnnntastic. Leg feels good, though. I weave in and out of traffic like I'm Ponch from Chips. 1 mile time: 9:40. Uh oh. OK, race traffic slowed me down.

MILES 1-4: I get into a groove. Unfortunately, so does Nebraskans for Peace guy's old lady. Here's the summary of her diatribe: "It's the government, man!" I admire activism. I really do. I just don't need it while I'm navigating mall runners and horse shit. Oh, did I mention that this trail is both a running trail and a horse trail? Neat.

MILES 4-6: Not much to report here. I have a lot of time to think, since I don't have my goddamn iPod. Thing is, though, I'm just soaking it all in and people watching on the run. My feet start to hurt a little. Weird.

MILES 6-8: Around mile marker 6, runners start coming back on the trail. There's this one guy leading the race who's about 6'8" and is in every race and, more often than not, he leads these things. I call him Thor. He's part of "Team Nebraska", an elite running group. Those guys (and gals) are a lot of fun. They have a serious look on their face, don't encourage other runners when they're done, and look like they've been training with Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. Good times. I should've asked them if they blog about their runs. The guy next to me comments that they have way too much free time. I agree and we make fun of them for the next mile or so. Then, he mentions to me that this will be nice when we turn around because it'll be downhill. Great. I didn't notice I was going uphill until he said that. My knee twinges.

MILES 8-9: My knee/IT band is stiff and sore, but not painful. I'm bored, I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I have no iPod. Have I mentioned that? I'm making a concerted effort to thank all of the volunteers for coming out on this chilly (35-40 degrees) morning. They deserve it!

MILES 9-10: I'm playing with house money now (gambling reference). I've never run this far. Everything is sore, but there's no way in God's green earth I'm stopping now. "What have I learned today?" is now my mantra. Here's what I've learned:

• Finishing the half marathon in May won't be a problem. Finishing in under 2 hours, might be.
• How do people run marathons? I'm going to need to do some serious training if I want to do one in October.
• There's no way I'm hitting my time of 1:30:00. Bummer. At least I'm finishing.
• I may have to look at new shoes.

MILE 10: 1:34:56. Not very impressive, but I had fun. I treated it like a long run and not a race. Later on, I'll get an email about where I ended up in the grand scheme of things. Don't know if I'll care. I'll just motor home and talk to my daughter about her first day of swimming lessons.

*

It's the government, man!
Upon second look, he kind looks like Saddam Hussein when they captured him.
(this very well may be my profile pic from now on)