To the race...
I woke up early so that I could get a little run in and a stretch... I also made sure to drink water prior to the race so we wouldn't have the same debacle as last time.
I meet my friends at the race, and HOLY this is a little different than Sunday. So the race Sunday was like 4-500 people... this race had to stop registration because over 12,000 people registered. Only 10,935 people actually participated - I hope you caught the sarcasm of only - and it was a complete mad house when the race started. There were so many people at the event (and if you know my friends and I you know we are notorious for being late) and we were all the way in the back, and by the time we crossed the start line, the race had already been going for over eight minutes. To put this in perspective, the winner of the trot was nearing mile three and I hadn't even started.
We start the race and right away I knew the pace Catherine was setting was WAY too fast for this girl. I keep up for a bit, but then realize I will never, ever finish if I try and continue, so I drop back from my friends. It is there where I see this girl dressed very similarly to myself who seems to be running at the same pace as where I want to be. I start to follow her and we end up running four miles together before getting lost in the chaos of the last mile. I don't know who she was, and we didn't speak, but for that race she was my best friend ha.
This next section is going to be very confusing if you aren't familiar with Delaware Avenue, but just pretend like you know the landmarks I am speaking of anyway.
The race starts near Mighty Taco, but as mentioned above we were at the back of the line, a la Frank's Sunny Italy. We start heading toward downtown (I'm not good with compass directions, south maybe?) where we pass by a few relatives who are cheering us on outside Tim Hortons. Around the Marshall's plaza I drop back from my friends and continue on my own until I meet my new friend at the S curves. After completing the S curves I see a few girls I know who have already started walking, and Carly yells that this mile and a half is the furthest she's ever gone before walking (and when she says ever she means she's been doing this for multiple years now). Upon seeing them walking, I begin to feel tired, but I didn't want them to see me stop after I laughed at them for walking. I tell myself that if I could just make it to Caniusius High School then I would be allowed to take a walking break. After what feels like an eternity, I make it to Canisius and just as I decide it's time to walk, I see the flag for mile three a few streets ahead. I think to myself, how could you stop so close to mile three, you have to keep going. So I do. And when I get to the mile three flag there were people cheering like crazy the Saturn Club chefs were all outside, and I didn't want to let anybody down, so I said I would just keep going until the sidewalks cleared out a bit and people wouldn't notice (read: less people would notice) me stopping. By this time I can see the next mile flag and as I did for the last one, I told myself Rachel you can't stop until you get to the flag. I didn't. At this point were at about W. Tupper so there is a great view of that tall pointy thing in Niagra Square that looks like this:
Seeing that makes me so happy because I know I am almost downtown. I also know that at this point we are multiple blocks past Arby's and that on plenty of St. Patrick's Days we have made the walk from Allen to Chippewa with no problems, and so my next "stopping point" (obviously in quotes because I didn't actually stop, as I ruined the surprise for you in the second sentence of this email) was Chippewa... but of course I told myself Quote nightclub so that I could get a quick chuckle in. Once crossing Chippewa there are only two more streets before reaching Niagara Square so the crowd is getting real intense and my second wind kicks in and I start to pick up my pace. This is where I lose my dear friend, whose name I will never know.
If you've run this race, then you know they love to make you detour around Niagara Square and take the long way to the finish line at the convention center... however I did enjoy it because it gave a nice straight-away finish. I complete the race and my legs feel like jello, and I realize that I lost my friends at mile one and I did not have any way of contacting them. Luckily I hear my name shouted from the crowd and it was Jamie and Lauren who had just finished as well. We looked around but didn't see anyone we knew so we decided to see if they were in the after party. At this time it is just after 10am and there is a live band and draft beer and I was so proud of myself because all I wanted was a banana and some water. The thought of drinking a beer after running five miles was nauseating. Kudos to those who could. It took some time, but we finally found our friends and then got a ride home, where I could nap away my jello legs before thanksgiving dinner.
Oh yeah - not only did I run this race three minutes faster than my first, but it was also 0.2 miles longer, so it was even faster than that. Go me!
XOXO
55.34 minutes
Miles Ran 5.2
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