Wings

In a span of 24 hours, I went from 27 degrees and 2 feet of snow to 80+ degrees, high humidity, and full sun. My body was in shock. I decided to add onto that shock my attempting a 5K. Not so smart, but I was trying to see the advantages of racing from a training stand point. I was trying. My training has been going alright for the last two weeks. This week, not so much do mainly to the snow on Wednesday and Thursday, then all day traveling on Friday. I have just been logging SLOW miles and trying to ride 3x a week. I get to start swimming next week and as sick as this may sound, I am looking forward to swimming again.

Jax and I headed over to Savannah Friday afternoon. I was excited to get out of town for a few days with her. I had never been to Savannah, but have heard great things about the city. I just know some historical facts from my AP American History class in 11th grade (Thanks Mr Gardner!). The trip was uneventful on the way over minus the SCREAMING child on the small regional jet from Charlotte to Savannah. But we survived, got the rent a car and turned on the AC.

Saturday morning was race day. But the race was at 5pm. I ran in SportSkirts 1st race about 2 years ago. That is also the 1st time I meet Jax. 2 years later, we are together in Savannah supporting Nicole in her SkirtChaser race series. The SkirtChaser race series puts on 5K races in about 6 cities right now (with more to come in 2010). The women start off 3 minutes before the men and then the men try to catch the women. 1st person across the line wins money. The night is capped off with a fashion show, dating game, music, drinks, food, and a ton of fun! Jax was excited that I was going to race. I was not so excited.

As I warmed up, I was dripping in sweat. It was so HOT out. The course was a simple layout, mainly flat, around a race course. I guess some wealthy people had built a F1 style race course years ago, but the concept never took. Now they have just local races on the track...and a 5K race. The loop around the track was 2.1 miles and then another half mile on either end for a nice 3.1 miles.

We lined up. I looked around. I was the only girl in the front wearing a costume which included a pair of wings. Hmm...this should be interesting. The gun goes off and the girl take off. And I mean take off. We were flying the first 1/2 miles. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and saw 5.30, 5.20, and even a 5.16. Shit. This was not going to be good. Then someone yelled "You are flying with your wings." For now I was. I decided to be smart and back down a little with the pace. I wanted to run a certain pace, but I knew it would be ambitious given my current state of fitness and training, but hell, I had wings. That had to given me an advantage.

Mile 1 rolls by and I am sitting in 4th place. A little after mile 1 I catch 3rd place. Ok. This is not as bad as I think. I am still holding my ambitious pace. Then it happens at mile 1.85 (according to my Garmin). My wings all off. And from there I stop flying and start spiraling to the ground quickly. 2 girls pass me. One has my wings and asks if I want them. I smugly dismiss her and my wings. I don't need wings. Reality was I did need wings. Maybe even 2-3 sets of wings. Mile 2-3 was 20-30 seconds slow then than first 2 miles. Ouch! I cross the line, still able to break 20 minutes and finished as the 5th female, but wondering what I could have run if I was fit. Oh well. It is October. I don't need to be fit. Right?

During the awards ceremony, someone complained to the race crew that people wearing wings had an unfair advantage over those who didn't wear wings. Interesting concept. I wish it was true. I would be sporting the wings at every event regardless of whether it was Halloween or not.

Rock On,

JK2