We figured that I was nowhere near PR shape (and probably never will be), whereas the Girl was set to PR. Hence, I took the baby jogger.
Unfortunately, the Girl had been working all day and got home just an hour and a half before the start of the race. She suddenly had to eat, dress, get reday, feed the Lorax etc in a hurry. See her Turtlehead story for some of the consequences of hurrying too much.
Anyway. I lined up in the back, smugly wearing this shirt:
Believe it or not, this was fully in the spirit of the race.
The Girl started up closer to the front. The gun went and everyone took off. Thankfully, the road was very wide, so I was able to find plenty of room for the jogger. After a quarter or so mile I caught up to the Girl, who was going very, very fast. Once things thinned out, I got close enough to talk to her. "You're going too fast. Just slow down a little; find someone to pace off. There's a long way to go".
She completely ignored me; didn't even acknowledge I was there. I did some more pep-talking like "this is going to be a huge PR; save some for the end".
Again, she completely ignored me, seeming so focused on her race that she wouldn't waste energy looking over at me.
Then we took a turn into a stiff headwind. She was in a little pack and I told her to get right behind someone to draft or offered her to draft behind me. She immediately passed the little group and started closing the gap, accelerating into the headwind.
People looked at us like "why the fuck are they displaying their marital problems out here?!?"
So we got to mile 1 in 6:12. Way too fast for the Girl in my opinion. I was hoping for 6:20s. I told her I thought it was too fast and that she should slow down.
"What?", she screamed, pulling out an earphone. She hadn't heard me this whole time... Well, isn't that nice?
With that, I asked meekly whether I could take off, since I felt a little underappreciated at this time. And took off I did. I ran the next two miles in 11 minutes, definitely yielding some "what the fuck?"-looks from the spectators. You get tons of goodwill from racing with a jogging stroller, of course, and that was fun.
The Girl came through the second mile in 6:30 and finished in 20:18, a PR by over a minute. She definitely has a sub-20 in her and could go much faster if she trained a little more focused.
Two fast old people in front of 100 fit college kids:
2 comments:
Reading her version of the race and yours in contrast is really funny. It must be frustrating to try and coach a strong-willed person running her own race! My husband would just say women never listen to their husbands. 'Tis a fact of life. ;)
Were you happy with your race?
Danni,
It was a fun race; fun to run with the jogger. I will get my own shot at a fast time in a few weeks.
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