Solo racing, sliced again, whatever else
There was another 5k race this Saturday. Ali had been sick all week so there was no way she could run it but I decided I would go it solo. I have wanted to try running a race at my own pace to see how I could do. This race was in Ft Myers Beach during the Shrimp Festival. Parking for the event was a mess, they had a bunch of the road blocked off so we parked probably a mile away and walked. This race was tough, probably the toughest course to date because it went over and back across the Matanzas bridge, the highest point in Lee County. The bridge part hits right in the middle of the race so it is a real test, especially for Florida runners that never see hardly a slight incline. It was hot as well, by the time the race started at 9:30 it felt like it was into the 80’s already. I was excited to go all out and see how fast I could go but at the same time nervous about the pain I knew was to come.
The gun sounded and I took off pretty fast. I passed a bunch of runners that Ali and I normally wind up running with. The first mile was 7:37 and I was feeling it, I was already tired and I didn’t even hit the bridge yet. There was a different mindset running by myself. If someone passed me, I took it personally and tried to compensate, where as if I was with Ali I wouldn’t give it a second thought because I knew I was sticking by her. You pick out targets in front of you and work on picking them off, if you are really tired you work on just not losing ground. Then the bridge came. Boy it sucked, I dug in and plugged away up the hill. I passed numerous people who either started to walk or slowed down their pace greatly. Getting to the top was a relief but the knowledge that I had to come back over the hill was looming large. I was really working hard. I was too tired to monitor the GPS watch, I just had tunnel vision, I didn’t look at the crowd around the parade route, didn’t look at the scenery, I just looked ahead.
The second trip over the hill is where I found my target that would pull me into the finish. A short woman that I pegged as being in her forties. She was in front of me up to that point but I passed her on the 2nd trip over the hill, however she hung with me from the downhill on. Evidently a lot of people knew her as she got lots of cheers as we went by the spectators, calling out her name. I could tell she was only a few steps behind me but there was no way I wanted to get passed by a chick in the end. So I pushed hard, really hard. I was as tired as I can remember. At the 2 mile mark I grabbed a cup of water and choked down a few drops and threw the rest on my chin, I missed my face. The last half mile felt like forever, I was just focused on staying ahead of the footsteps I heard behind me. At the very end I passed a 20 something chick for good measure. You can see from this picture Ali took at the finish line how close they were. You can also see how damn tired I was.
I crossed the line in 25:12, right around an 8 minute mile pace. Considering the course, I was happy with the result. I would assume with a flat course I could be comfortably into the 24’s. After I took off my ankle timing device I found a patch of grass and just laid down on my back. Ali was worried something was wrong and I assured her I just was tired. I pushed myself to just about the limit of my cardiocascular ability. My time was actually good enough to get 4th in my age group, only 20 seconds off of 3rd. It was a challenge to run the race solo at my pace, it’s something I am ok with only exploring now and then. I’m ok being Ali’s pace setter most races.
On the walk up before the race we stopped at a 7-11 because I had to pee like mad. I grab the knob and it’s locked and some guy mumbles something. He’s was in there a long time so I assumed he was taking a dump, great…. The guy comes out, he has long black hair, a baseball cap, sunglasses and is talking on his cell phone. I hurry into the bathroom, hold my breath as long as I can and relieved myself. This was significant because this same guy showed up again as I was running back over the bridge the second time, he was one of the morons that was walking out in the middle of the race route instead of using the sidewalk. Then after the race, walking back to the car, I see the same 7-11 shitter riding in the passenger seat of a truck pulling a parade float. Why it was intended for me to see this guy 3 times in a few hours is beyond me.
Even though I was wiped after the race, when we got home I still plowed into my to do list. In the space of a few hours I had watered the landscape, worked on the van, pulled off the pool cover, cleaned it and cleaned the junk out of the pool, filled the bird feeders and a handful of other things. Saturday night we watched Chronicles of Narnia. It was a marginal quality copy where someone sets up a camera in a theater. However the movie, while lengthy, was very good. Ali and I both enjoyed it.
Sunday I was feeling the aches and pains of running hills when you aren’t used to it. My calves and shins were both killing me. We ran out to do a few errands and we tied up the to do list. One of the to do’s was to have Ali buzz my hair again in prep for my latest skin removal procedure.
Monday was the appointment at 11:30. Before the appointment I ran more errands like going back to the Quik Lube place to point out that they didn’t change my oil filter (which they then did), a stop at the Ford dealership to order a couple van parts and then Pinch a Penny for pool supplies. I had more time to kill so I spent in browsing through Best Buy where after looking at the nice 20 inch lcd monitors that I desire, settled on getting a new set of headphones that don’t hurt my head like my current set. I explained it as a “surgery present” to Ali.
The procedure went fine. Before we started I told the doc that I can’t even really see any more discoloration at the spot and maybe he got it all when he scraped it. He said the pathologist said it was suspicious and in a case like that the safest bet is to remove a small region outside the suspect area. (yea and then he also gets to bill me an obscene amount of money) So he numbs the area and says he will be back in 5 minutes. 15-20 minutes later he comes back and starts to cut. It hurts so he injects more numbing stuff. The procedure took maybe 20 minutes total. Since the area was in the hairline, they couldn’t get traditional bandages to stick, so the nurse put a gauze pad on the area and then slapped what looked like a cross between a hairnet and headband around my head to keep it in place. It looked ridiculous. Once I got out to the van I looked in the mirror and adjusted the headgear to make it look as inconspicuous as possible, which was fruitless. When I went home the women at the drive thru paused and gave me a funny look when she saw my choice of head fashion. I told Ali I was going to to put a hat on when I got home to hold it in place but I decided to leave the headband on so Ali could see how dumb I looked. As the day went on the incision started to hurt a bit which was controlled by popping a couple Advil.
This morning I took off the headband to reveal my latest frankenstein scar, it’s lovely. I had an appointment with the orthodontist. I am on my last set of trays for my upper teeth., great right? Wrong, my upper teeth aren’t straight yet. From straight on they look ok but when you look from the side you can see the 2 teeth that I have been most conscious of my entire life, still are at angles that don’t match up with the rest of my teeth. When I pointed this out to the ortho, at first he acted like they were ok and the flaw was minor. However I persisted that those 2 teeth were the entire focus of the 2 and a half years of crap I have been going through and I wanted them straight. The doc first suggested that he could dimple the tray to put pressure on the tooth. I told him that we tried that before and it doesn’t really do much. Then he offered they could design the retainer to put pressure on the tooth. I told him that was what they told Ali and the one tooth she has issues with isn’t moving with the retainer. Then he said he could get more trays from Invisalign but that procedure would add another 2 months of down time when nothing is happening. So I think what is going to happen is the next time I go in they will be slapping metal brackets up top. I will have a metal mouth for a couple months but at least there will be complete control of the teeth that way. I just want this ordeal to be over with. Invisalign is ok for minor tooth fixing, I would not recommend it if you need major work done.