Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bayou City Classic 2009

I ran Bayou City Classic Saturday morning. Andrea, Tori and Gwen walked it. Jakeb sat it out this year because he had spring break plans that had him out of town.

When I woke up Saturday morning I was cold. I had felt like I may be getting sick and I was a little tired. The combination of all of those factors made me want to dress warm. I put on a long sleeve cotton shirt with a tech shirt over it. I put on tights and shorts and brought my gloves along. I was warm by gosh and I was not going to be cold during the race.

We got there about 45 minutes early and sat in the car for a while. When we finally decided to get out the wind was brutal and I thought I had made a good decision by wearing all of the layers of clothes. People around me were just in shorts and shirts and were shivering at the start. But not me, I was warm and comfortable … until I started to run.

The crowd started moving and I took off at a good pace. I felt like I could run a good race, maybe not as fast as last year but it would be a good time. Then I started sweating. I had to take off the gloves. I hit the first mile in 7:45 and thought to myself, “Tommy you are stupid. You are wearing way too many clothes and you know better.”

So slowed down. I watched the people around me run. I ran for fun and a t-shirt. And I finished in 49:22.

Immediately after finishing I started shivering. So after getting a t-shirt, a Saint Arnold’s spring bock and a breakfast taco I went to the car and changed into warm dry clothes.

Tori came across the finish around 1:20ish and Andrea and Gwen finished a little later.

I am glad I ran. It is the first time in a long time I did not push myself to finish as fast as I possibly could. It was a cold hot cold day.