It's Just Abbey

Today was the Docs N Socks 5K in Findlay Ohio. I have been waiting a long time for this race.

Why?

Not because I was really ready to buckle down and crack my personal best again. No, because I got some killer socks for this race. See?

Bam. Those just happened. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find these socks. I had them ordered and in my possession within a week. Then it became the task of waiting to unveil them on the big day. Tricky business.

The day of the race I woke up bright and early and put on my socks. Then I decided getting dressed, eating and packing my things would also be important. So I had some tasty oatmeal and yogurt. My stomach was feeling a little indifferent and I didn’t want to anger it. Success. I also gave my new shoes a pep talk. I have broken them in and I am in love with them but I told them that today was their final judgment. How did they race? I threatened their lively hood and made sure they knew today was a day for serious running. They seemed to understand.

Now I am not sure about the rest of you but around here today it has been windy. Not just kinda windy, I mean, BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, kind of windy. Well, I had to show off my socks so I went with shorts, cold weather be damned. Then just a long sleeve shirt and of course, my Bondi band for my hair the read, "SLOW, it's the new fast!"

The race happily had all the registration things indoors. It made life a lot easier on everyone. Trouble was everyone was just huddled inside waiting on the race to start. I, trying to be smart (I know, right? WHO AM I?!), did a warm up run outside, stretched and prepped outside so I wouldn’t shock myself when the race started. I will say now the entire time I was warming up I was trying to get my Garmin to function. It was overcast and with wind gusts anywhere between 30-50mph. My Garmin was not playing ball today. Then I stuffed my face with jelly beans. In my life as a video game, my health bars would be measured in jelly beans. The mana? Pepsi, but that wasn’t needed today.

I got my Garmin running just before the race thankfully and we were off! We did a lap around the parking lot and then into the streets. I absolutely love running on the streets because all the cars passing us just stare like we were a bunch of lunatics escaping the mental hospital. I didn’t blame them today. Not with what was ahead.

After the first half a mile I was holding a steady 8:30 mile, or so I think. The numbers jumped around so much without me changing pace. That worried me. I did my best to not freak out. See guys? I’m growing!

I dashed along feeling very fresh despite the wind. My calves weren’t acting up so I pushed a little harder. Unfortunately the moment I started to push, BOOM, head wind. Running against the wind is miserable. Not kind of miserable, not sort of miserable, super miserable. Especially in the cold. I just put my head down and cut through as hard as I could. Then we turned again and the wind was at my back. Holy cow, I’m flying, Jack! Then back to the wind coming straight on, then the wind at my back. Rinse repeat with only a few instances of sideways, "I'm gonna knock you over!" wind. Excellent.

Then there was the odd turn around. This is an important part so pay attention. We ran a did one turn, then another, then down a short distance (maybe .1 mile) and then made a hairpin turn around. A short while after that the guy yelling times for the Mile 2 split was approaching. I passed the water station because well, I haven’t learned to drink and run yet. I end up with it all over myself like a 2 year old with pudding. Cold + Water + Wind = Unhappy Abbey. I kept running. I looked at my Garmin as I passed him. 1.85 miles…. What!? No. This was bad. What happened?

I didn’t like this and started freaking out. I freaked out for all of about 20 seconds before I realized I was slowing down in my panic/angry mode. Run woman! RUN! This is no time to freak out and go all Abbey on the situation. If you wait until the end you can stress out but also have a free banana. I carried on.

I came around to the last half mile and turned the corner RIGHT INTO THE WIND. Gah! I pushed as hard as I could and kept my head down. I leaned forward and just kicked it out. Other than the wind blowing my face off, I felt really good. I wasn’t exhausted and my legs still felt strong. I pushed a little harder because I wanted to run my legs out. It was a race after all. What good do you do if you hold back right?! Right.

I buzzed around the final corner, high fived my mom and made my way to the… wait. Where is the finish line? I didn’t see a clock or an actual line but I did see some cones and a few guys milling around. I headed to there. They stopped me, I stopped my Garmin, someone thanked me for staying in order, took the bottom part of my racing bib, and I was done.

25:49.

I can’t tell you how long I stared at those numbers but it felt like forever. Time just stopped and I just read the numbers over and over trying to get it to sink in. I blinked and reality started again, then I brought my eyes to the bottom corner of my Garmin screen.

2.91 miles.

Cue that previous running related meltdown. What, WHAT?! It wasn’t even 3 miles, let alone 3.1!! Nooooo! Today was perfect! I was running so hard and great today! Why GOD WHY?! I was bummed out and just skulked into the waiting area. I showed Hoppie and my mom the distance and they assured me it was just a malfunction of some sort. I really ran a 5K and I did it in awesome time.

That reassurance didn’t click for me for about 2.5 hours. I just sat around brooding for a while. My little sisters really helped though. They had come to cheer me on and also do the kids fun run. They did awesome! Lauren ran her little heart out and Taylor wasn’t far behind. After the race we asked them if they wanted to run again.

Lauren: YEAH! That was fun!
Taylor: No. That wasn’t and fun at all. I don’t like running.

Okay so maybe only one little runner protégé. They did get nifty little bags at the end so maybe if they can correlate running to free swag we will be in business!

Lauren, Taylor and my shoes. All Nike all the time. Just do it? Just did it! Bam.

No prizes for Abbey this round. Not even a door prize but I don’t care. I have resolved that my Garmin just spazzed out and my new PR is (according to the site) 25:51. I can certainly live with that!

Not sure when my next race will be but I am in full on Marathon Training Mode! I’ll update you all on that later but today we will just bask in the awesomeness of DESTROYING my old personal record.