 | ||
| All Done! |
I can remember times in my life where I have felt saddened
or defeated just by life itself, most of us have been in the situation I’m
depicting at one time or another. We’re
told that the way we handle those moments will shape our characters that we
even learn from them, and we grow stronger once on the other side of whatever
that obstacle is. Well, we all know that, we’ve
been there, done that. What do we do in
the middle of all that? I know I have
either gone for a long run to get away and clear my mind or I would engulf a
pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I
love me some ice cream and running’s up there too…
So, when it was brought to my attention that a new race was
coming to town, one that had you running and eating ice cream well, let’s say
it didn’t take me long to signup especially when the event was taking place
just a few miles from home. I was
extremely confident that I would do well at this event and I wasn’t wrong. I have to say that I felt out of place at a
race for the first time in my running career this morning. No one was warming up, no stretching, no
striders at the start, nothing seemed familiar to me. I didn’t know what to do! Did I stick to what I have always done?
Should I do what I preach to other runners…or do I become a lemming and go with
the crowd. I decided to meet in the
middle and do some shaking of the legs and some nonchalant stretching. Allyson, Charlotte, and Denise were having
fun with me, telling me I was lost, that I needed to lighten up and just make
this a fun run. Fun run? I couldn’t wrap my head around that and when
the “run” went off, so to did my internal race switch.
I went out in a 5:42 first mile (this was not a fast course,
gravel and loose rock). I was leading
the charge to the ice cream station. It
was roughly a mile and a half out and back course, but the turnaround was not
like any I had ever experienced. Before
you turn back you had to eat a quart of vanilla bean ice cream! As I mentioned earlier I have had my fair
share of ice cream experience. All those
times enjoying Gibby’s Belly Buster’s was about to pay off. When I came into the station I was handed a bottle
of water, a spoon, and my ice cream. I
made the mistake of sitting down at first, but caught on fast that it would be
faster to stand while I destroyed this ice cream.
I came into the station tied for first place, but quickly fell to
fifth. It took me 7 mins and 30 secs to finish
the ice cream (not a single brain freeze).
I only stopped for a quick picture and out the station I went. I was slower going back now barely holding on
to a 6:25 pace, but I was able to catch three of my competitors to take an off
the record 3rd place over all (they don’t give out places or
awards). Allyson said the guy that came
in first was there 3 minutes before me!
I heard a rumor from Bill Manley that the guy was an out of town guy who
did these type of events often. All in
all not a bad attempt at competitive eating by me. The race took me a total of 26 minutes to
complete 18:33 of it was the run the rest was the ice cream eating.
As for ice cream I could have eaten more and I have a carton
of Turkey Hill Rocky Road in the freezer that just might get polished off
tonight…
No comments:
Post a Comment