Booya Ka Sha!

Saturday morning dawned cold and clear. Laura had come up from DC the evening prior and I'd biked to the M&T Bank Stadium to pick up our race packets. As I left the lines were 100 people long to get into the elevators that took you to the packet pickup/running-wear sellathon. Like Russia in '89, there were three lines - packet, chip, and tshirt pickup. The stations are placed strategically to make you pass the maximum amount of merchandise (shoes, shirts, shorts, tights, Gu, more shirts, powerbars, shirts shirts shirts). Having succumbed last year I was ready this time, ignoring the siren song of UnderArmor and the 50% off rack.

As part of my plan to channel Floyd Landis, I had a beer. We ordered pizza (carboloading?) and watched Drumline, falling asleep at midnight. The race started at 9:45 so we got to sleep in (rad!) till 8am. Taxis were not plentiful and we ended up driving and missing our rendezvous with Laura's colleague's roommate Quinn, though we clearly stated the new meeting point. Still, no sign of her. We lined up and I just felt excited to find out what would happen during the race. Would my knee blow? My hip flexor? Would I finish? A thousand possibilities awaited me!

Around mile 2 I lost Edith around a corner. Steady on through Fells Point and around Patterson Park. This was my leg of the relay last year so I knew about how far it was to the halfway point (as if I couldn't read the mile markers); more importantly, I knew the hills. I floated up them; they were nothing. I kept my pace. No rush.

Around mile 6 I caught up with Laura, who, being a DC resident, was not as familiar with changes in elevation. She showed me how to hold the cups of water and grabbed us some Gu at the one Gu stop. It tasted like frosting. We stayed together the rest of the way until mile 11.

Music played along the way: the theme from Chariots of Fire (mile 5); a drumline (!) (mile 6); South African dancehall music (my neighborhood, mile 9); the theme from Rocky (mile 10). Big ups to all who cheered us on!

Plan Floyd worked out well - I barged up the hills and my hip/knee pain was stable the whole way. My time was 1:55:17, which works out to 8:50 miles. Not bad.

Afterwards we got our water, banana, and beer, then hit Sophie's Crepes and the end of the Bike Swap at Velocipede. The alleycat turned out to be just a drag race (one mile) so we skipped it and took showers and naps. Neely drove up from College Park because she is AWESOME (leaving the baby with Doug) and we went out to Thai Arroy in Fed Hill, which was excellent as everyone's said. We ate a ton and came home and watched Da Ali G show.

So - not really that sore! Knee hurts a little going down stairs, but honestly, I felt much much worse after my 9.5 mile run (which was post NYC biking, compounding muscle fatigue). The whole race I was filled with adrenalin, totally euphoric, not wanting to be anywhere else. Off my rocker. Fatigue set in only around 3pm. However, this doesn't mean a marathon's in my future. Thirteen miles is plenty long enough for me.