Top Pot 5k

Keeping with the new birthday tradition, Susan wanted to do a run for her birthday.  We looked around for a half marathon but then the Top Pot Doughnut 5k revealed itself and the case was settled.  What could be better than having a doughnut and coffee after a run?

Registration was an anxiety inducing event in and of itself.  We went to Jock n’ Jill to register in person and they only took cash, which I did not have.  So, we went around the corner to an ATM, paid our $85 service fee and got our cash.  I had illegally parked and I know those meter maids lurk just waiting for the opportunity to generate revenue.  We went back to the store and I registered for me, Morrie and Marti and Susan took care of herself.  We went back to the car and I was ticket free!

The race was actually the day after Susan’s birthday, on a nice Sunday morning.  Morrie mentioned that there were supposed to be 3,000 people at the event but there were only just over 2,000.  Not that that made a difference.  There were still a ton of people there.  The set-up was similar to the Iron Girl 10k in that they wanted everyone to line up according to pace.  I find that nobody ever abides by this as walkers mingle with the runners.  Oh well, we squeezed into the 11 minute milers and called it good.

We eventually started.  There were significantly fewer people than at the Iron Girl and I was not nearly as irritated by the walkers.  It was still packed with people in the beginning and we had to run off the trail occasionally to pass folks pushing their strollers and/or walking.  Eventually the crowd thinned out.  I was going along at a pretty good clip.  I felt good considering we were out late the night before.  Before I knew it we were at mile 1.

I had no idea where Morrie or Susan were.  They could have been in front of me for all I knew.  There were so many people that I had to watch for kids suddenly stopping in front of me or people stopping suddenly to pick up their MP3 player that they dropped.  I couldn’t watch for these people and keep an eye on my friends.  I felt strong and was still pushing myself.  At mile 2 a very nice volunteer, who, it turns out, was my co-workers son, yelled encouraging words to us.  All the volunteers were really nice.

Finally I rounded the corner by the pool and knew the end was near.  I entered the finish chute and picked up my stride.  The ground here was a bit rolly and it would be an easy, yet embarrassing place to trip.  I concentrated on the ground and I glanced up just in time to see my friend Danielle on the sidelines cheering me on.  That was nice.  I finished strong at a personal 5k record of 29:55.  My first sub 30 minute 5k.

I got my chip removed from my foot and went to immediately get a bottle of water.  We were to meet over by the porta-potties.  By the time everyone had finished I wandered over to get my doughnut and don’t you know they had run out!  Can you believe it?  Run out of doughnuts?  At a run for doughnuts?  Well, Morrie had managed to snag 2 of them so we shared.  As it turns out, doughnuts aren’t as good as a banana after a run.

We had fun though and the run was a benefit for Childhaven so it’s all good. After we made our way back to the car, we went to Mae’s Phinney Ridge Cafe for breakfast. Yummy!

More Mud and Chocolate. Except without the mud.

We took a long break after the Dirty Duo.  We let Susan rest her injury (still not healed) and took it easy.  But we did sign up for the second Mud and Chocolate half marathon.  Morrie and I had done this race back in November and it was only our second half marathon.  We wanted to die by the third lap.  We were interested how the trail would look after having done the Dirty Duo.

We arrived at the Redmond Watershed Preserve and actually found a place to park in the parking lot.  Would this be an omen of things to come?  We checked in, got our bibs and affixed them to our clothes.  We found Morrie’s mom and got her outfitted.  She was going to do the one loop 4.25 miler for sure and was hoping to do two loops.  One last bathroom run where the line was out the door and up the trail.  A few women, including Morrie, Susan and I, commandeered the men’s room.  After that we were off to the start.

We got the usual rundown:  Don’t scare the horses, share the trail, markers are pink.  Then we were all stuffing ourselves onto the narrow trail for the official start.  We were so far back that we never did hear them say “Go”!  But we were off.

I took off, feeling pretty good and that was the last time I saw Morrie and Susan.  I worried though, that they were right behind me.  And that just made me more determined to run the whole first loop, no matter what.

I got to the first big hill and I couldn’t believe it.  I sorta chuckled that I had remembered this as a gigantic hill when it was really nothing.  Well, nothing compared to anything the Dirty Duo had to offer.  This was going to be a cinch.  I plowed up, and around, and past.  I was feeling really good.  The trail was different this time.  No big leaves on the trail covering the rocks.  I kept trying to remember what was next and I never managed to guess right.  The horse gates were much further in than I remembered and there was a complete section that I had forgotten about.  But, soon enough I was back at the aid station.  One loop down and it only took me 45 minutes.

I emptied my shoe of rocks and had an Honest Tea and grabbed an Agave gel.   I spent about 5-8 minutes at the aid station and figured if I waited around too long then Morrie and Susan would catch up to me.  Unacceptable!  So I hit the trail.

There were fewer people on the trail now.  Everyone had thinned out and a bunch of people were only doing the one loop.  I decided to take this loop a little more leisurely.  I walked a bit on the hills and slowed my running down a little.  I had to pull over for mountain bikers once or twice.  They think they own the whole road.

There is a section of the run that fakes me out a little.  When I get to it I always think that I’m just about to pop out at the aid station.  I call this section the fake forest.  I am always surprised when I get to it and it isn’t the section that I thought it was.  When will I learn?  And this section always seems longer than I think it was last time.  Probably because I’m still confusing it with the actual end forest, which is much smaller.  Finally, I pop out of the fake forest and into the end forest then out to the aid station.  The second loop is complete in one hour.  I’m only 1:45 into the run and here comes the winner passing me.  I still have one loop left so I grab some more Honest Tea and an Agave gel and hit the road.  I’m convinced Susan and Morrie are going to pop around the corner any minute.

Even with the thought of Morrie and Susan being right behind me, I did end up walking more on the third loop.  I figured they would be slowing down too.  I toodled my way through the forest but I don’t really remember anything about the loop.  I was tired and my knees were a bit tender but other than that I still felt pretty good.  I finished the third loop in about 1:07 for a final finish of 2:52:33.  That’s almost 55 minutes faster than the last time I ran the course so I feel pretty good about that.