Judicata/Grand Ole Opry

Judicata, as described by Wikipedia, is Latin for a matter already judged. Or to say it another way, "a case in which there has been a final judgment and is no longer subject to appeal." In my case, yesterday's race really was a judicata of sorts as there was no appeal, I was up, at 7:55, about to run 9.6 miles as fast as I could and there was no backing out. I'd already announced it to everyone within' earshot (or facebook shot) in the days prior and I'm not one to back down from an endurance challenge, even if I know it's going to kick my ass.

Woke at 6:30, coffee, light yoga, food, drive to race. Pouring rain. Absolutely pouring rain. 8am start line. Gun goes off and I'm running in my first running event. What am I doing? First race is only a 5k, so I'm planning to take it easy, first split has me running a 7:30 mile, not exactly easy by my standards. Next mile is uphill, 8:00 flat, last mile is almost all downhill, right around 7:00. total time for the 5k: 23:00. Walk to car, in the rain, change clothes, sit, feel sick, drink Heed with an excedrin in it. Take picture out the front window of the car at the dismal scene, also take picture of myself feeling haggard as seen here. Walz cap was perfect, love it, wet wool smells nice.

Rain sort of stops, walk/jog up to the start line, more serious runners for the 10k. Gun goes off, start working my way through the pack, up one hill, down another, up another, down another. At mile 3 I look at my watch and find I'm doing 8 minute miles. Initially I was hoping for a sub 1:00:00 time for the 10k, but halfway through I decided I could likely keep my pace up and possibly come in sub 50:00. Stomach starts to get nasty toward the end. At about mile 4.8 we hit this steep hill by the golf course, I knew it was coming and when we hit it everyone around me slowed to a crawl. I had been climbing well all day so I hit the gas and pushed the last 1.5 miles to the finish coming in at 48:30. It's so easy to set "personal records" when you've never done something before.

About this time the stomach starts to get really really angry and I spent the rest of the day trying not to puke. I usually feel this was for a little while after cyclo-cross races but this was more severe and it lasted right up until bedtime, unfortunately, because the evening was spent at the Ryman for a special edition of the Grand Ole Opry. Del McCoury, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Charlie Haden and Jack Black were on hand. Our dobro player Andy Hall played with Charlie and Jack and we got some great footage that Chris Pandolfi compiled into a YouTube clip that I'll post here as soon as it's finished. (p.s. Turns out most of his footage is illegal since the Opry doesn't allow recording. Guess we'll just be keeping that one for the archives...)

Running hard is hard. I was starting to enjoy running, not so sure how I feel about it now. It kinda hurts, a lot. I'm going to ride my bike, today to the store, tomorrow to the gym and the next day around and around in circles at Montgomery Bell. Save the running for when I don't have ANY other options. 15k (9.3 miles) is not really that far compared to what a lot of runners are capable of. It's all relative, though and it's the new high mark for me. Maybe I'll feel better about running next spring and try to do something longer (half marathon?) or maybe I'll just stick to the bike.