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tburt75
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Joined: 30 Aug 2002
Posts: 346
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 Posted: 10/14/02 - 12:58 Post subject: My Weekend (if you got 15 minutes to read it.)
Saturday
5 am: My alarm goes off, signaling the start of a very interesting morning. Today i am to race the Disney 10k classic at Epcot. Not really race, more like use it as the first 6 miles of my long run.
Last night Carl was supposed to come down from Gainseville to run it with me but he never showed up. Oh well.
So Michelle gets up as i don my acorn suit, and get things ready to go. Championchip, sunglasses, HR monitor, visor...and out the door we went.
On the way we stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get some breakfast and a small coffee. The start of a pre-race ritual. The ride to Epcot was uneventful, i started telling Michelle how to get to Wide World of Sports because thats where the race ended.
I approached the parking attendant and stopped. The lady looked in the car and i said, "I'm here to race." She looked at me funny for a second and said, "Oh yeah, a few people have come through here already, not sure where you're supposed to go, but the parking lot is that way." As she pointed in front of me.
Hint 1: Disney ALWAYS informs the parking people of where/when events are being held.
Hint 2: there should be over 1200 people at this race, unless this lady was HORRIFICALLY understating, there might be a problem here.
I said thanks and drove off. I followed the short road to the EPCOT parking lot....and no one was there. Hmmm, i thought, maybe its ina back lot. So i drove around, and around...no one. not a soul. Michelle asked if we were too early. It was 6:34, and the race started at 7. I explained that volunteers and race festivities would be already rolling around 5:30.
Hint 3: No one at race site.
This is when i began to think perhaps i had the wrong day for the race. Maybe THAT's why Carl didn't come down. Maybe THAT's why i had today as a ride day, tomorrow as my long run. Wow. What a blunder.
So away we went, back home, looked on the sheet: Disney Classic 10k October 13th, Sunday.
mmmm. Michelle was the first to go to bed. Drinking coffee keeps me from sleeping, but i'll be riding later. My bike is still in the shop so i'll pick it up today and go do my 2 hour ride.
What a morning.
3 hours later...
Wow, this day is just not my day.
Go to the bike shop, pick up the bike at 10 am. After giving Scott a little poop, he let me have it for free..after all he was 'refixing' a previous problem he had 'fixed'. Took the bike to the trail, did a good stretch session, got the HR monitor in check and headed out. After about a mile i started noticing a fast clicking noise, like my chain was rubbing on something. In certain gears my chain rubs my front derailler a little bit, so i didnt' think twice about it.
Mile three came up and i was REALLY noticing it, especially since i was pushing a harder gear; one that usually didnt' make any noise. So i hopped off my bike and checked things out.
Now, when i brought my bike to the shop, not only were they to fix my creaky crank, but to re-attach my chain. From what i could tell, they didn't thread the chain properly through my derailler and it was rubbing on the 'jump' guard on the second spindle. WTF! I swear these guys just can't get anything right.
So i went over to a nearby bench, and started looking on the chain for the pin with the two strike marks on it. I had rememberd them telling me they may use another pin instead of the one that originally came out of the chain, and they must have because i couldn't find that one damned pin. I wasn't sure if i could pop out just any old pin, and after whipping out my chain tool and trying a few, it seemed like they were solid in there.
Pissed off i picked my bike up, all greasy and rode back to the station head. When i got there i happened to run into Steve, a guy i've ridden with before with the roadies. He took a look at it and told me i could pop out any old pin. As a matter of fact he took my tool and did the whole job himself right there. I thanked him a whole bunch and was back on my way. Total time loss: 1 hour. I couldn't do my 2 hour ride now, so instead i did an hour. My HR was very erratic on teh bike. My watch would beep and i'd be at 160 HR, then i'd slow down and it'd drop real quick to 140. It was hard to stay at a low HR, but i managed. Avg speed: 15.6 blech. can't wait till im in better shape and don't have to do so much low aerobic stuff...and can get back to my 20 mph avg's!
SUNDAY
Alright, earlier this week the plan was to race saturday morning, have a party saturday night, then rest sunday.
Since i screwed up and the race was Sunday, having the party on Saturday really screwed things up.
Saturday night everyone started arriving at about 8 pm and we started playing Cranium. Drinking, eating, and generally having a great time. Everyone left around 11:30 and i passed out around midnight.
5 am: My alarm goes off. Wow, am i dehydrated. I get the water from the side of my bed and drink it down all at once. God i don't feel like gtting up. If Carl wasn't in the next room, i'd have eaten the $24 dollar loss of a race fee and just slept in. If i had done that though, i'd not have this story to tell.
Carl and i drove to Epcot and got to the race about 6:30. It started at 7. I was in my acorn suit with my number cleverly placed over my jewels to prevent indecent exposure to 1400 people. About 10 minutes from start i had to go to the bathroom so i headed over to teh porta potties. I had to do a #1 and a #2. Finally got into the porta pottie after waiting in line, only to find no toilet paper. igh: just my luck. So i did my #1 and went to the race start just as the gun went off.
Mile 1 was ok, just wanted to keep under 140 HR and cruise this 6.2 miles. I was barely moving and my HR was 142. Oh well, i guess i'll stay under 150. It was humid and i guess pre-race festivities made my HR unusually high today. Carl set off at the front to a wonderful race.
About 1.5 miles into it, my colon dropped, and #2 was comming out whether i liked it or not. I squeezed real tight and asked a race volunteer where the bathrooms were. Just up ahead.
Ran into the bathroom and made a deposit. I spent 14 minutes in the bathroom, and when i came out, the truck that picks up all the cones at the back of the pack had passed me; it was just up ahead.
Great.
So i ran to catch up to it, now about 3 lbs lighter. Caught up and passed the truck to the suprise of the driver, "Woa, there was somebody still back there!" and kept going at 165 hr for a little while. After i passed all the walkers, i dropped to a walk to let my HR come down.
I began jogging again but couldn't keep my HR below 150 so i just kept it around 152 the rest of the time. My body was depleted from the night before and these cheap-ass disney buttheads didn't have the courtesy to put gatorade on course. So i was stuck with just water for an hour and twenty minutes. I ended up catching upw ith the crowd i had started teh race with, and by mile 5 i was aching and hurting. Even though i was running slow, i was feeling it.
I didn't even kick the finish, just kinda jogged across and got some water and a bagel. Not even any gatorade at the finish line! I grabbed a bagel and some jelly and found Carl, "Dude, thought you died on teh course, what happened?" he said.
"Had to do a #2 at mile 1.5"
We laughed and i stretched out. He recorded a 45 minute 10k. Pretty awesome.
The rest of the day i felt like i had the flu. My whole body ached and i had a huge headache. I just relaxed, watched a movie and got home...went to bed at 8pm.
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