Mama Goes Masters Virtural Race Report

In case you haven't heard, MCM Mama is hosting a virtual race in honour of her birthday, which happens to be TODAY!

I've been saving up my racing distance for a day when I needed an extra push, and that was most definitely today.

Yesterday was one of those super hectic days that started at 7am and didn't slow down until 11pm.  I managed to squeeze my 4 miler in yesterday, only to be locked out of the house, which I got sorted out, but didn't leave me enough time to stretch before my meeting, which went long, which had me rushing to my next meeting, which went long, which left me eating greasy food for dinner at 8pm.  You know those days?

This morning, things were looking up, it was cool and cloudy and supposed to stay that way until thunderstorms late this afternoon.  I figured I would get caught up on a few things that didn't get done yesterday, then head out around 11 for my 8 mile run.  Good plan, except at 11am there was not a cloud in the sky and it was very humid.  I opted to wait it out and see if the clouds would come back.  At 1pm there were a few clouds in the sky, and still super humid.  At 1:30, I decided it wasn't going to get any better and got ready to head out in honour of MCM Mama's Big Day!

Just to switch things up, I changed my Garmin from kilometers to miles.

Mile 1  
I was feeling good.  There was a nice breeze blowing, and a cloud was covering the sun.  This isn't going to be so bad!

Mile 2
Ooof!  Shoe is too tight, quick stop to fix it.  Little drink of water.  It's getting pretty hot and I'm sweating buckets already.  Hey!  Somebody has sunflowers for sale with an honesty box - I'll have to swing back here later.

Mile 3
Ugh.  Running in straight sun.  No shade.  No clouds.  No breeze.  Triple ugh.  Lots of little hills.  I've never run this way before and I think I'll come back here earlier in the day, it's a nice road to run on, if only there was a little shade!  There's a 4 wheeler trail on the other side of the road in shade, but it looks uneven.  I stuck it out on the road, in the sun.

Mile 4
More hills.  More sun.  I am dripping.  One....more....hill. One giant BURP at the top.  I thought I was going to throw up a little, but I didn't. Walk break and Gu at the end of the 4th mile, and I thought I was feeling better.

Mile 5
Turned onto a different road to head back towards the highway.  This road sucked.  The pavement was uneven and full of rocks and ruts.  On the plus side there was almost no traffic so I ran on the wrong side where there was some sporadic shade.  I was literally shuffling up the hills at this point and took an extra walk break half way through this mile. 

Mile 6
Off the bad road and onto the highway.  The sun was behind me now and I felt a bit better and a bit faster.  This mile felt good.  What happened to all of my water?

Mile 7
Maybe I pushed too hard in the last mile - I was really sucking air and dying of thirst and my stomach was feeling kinda funky.  I took a little break, paused my Garmin and paced in the shade trying to talk myself out of giving up.  How could I quit a virtual race?  With the timer going again, I headed back across the highway for home, but just so I could refill my water bottle.

Mile 8
A quick final mile around the neighbourhood.  Here come the clouds!

Final .25
Sprint to the finish!

8.25 miles

1:18:47

Average Pace:  9:32/mile

Happy 40th MCM Mama!!!