The week started slow, thank god, but by mid week I was in full overload mode. Wednesday was a regular day at the office, followed by my evening class, followed by sushi, followed by drinks and Robert Plant live at Raleigh Memorial. It all seemed sane in my head when we were planning it out, and fit neatly into the hour blocks of my calendar. It was all self-selected, but as with so many other days that I overfill - waaay too much. And that was just Wednesday.
Thursday was another day of work, an overdue lunch with Mom and then a 5 course charity wine dinner with my brother, his wife and friends. This particular event has become an annual occurrence for us, so I knew to expect too much great food and way too much wine. Let's just say it met those expectations. Too much, too much, too much.
And I paid for it all day Friday - my one relatively loose day in the midst of the cramming. Too bad I wasn't at all able to enjoy how relaxed it should have been. It took a full 24 hours to completely recover, just in time for the race.
So, the local weathermen accurately predicted a cold wet morning for the Krispy Kreme Challenge. My dutiful driver/husband reluctantly stood with me in the rain for a half hour at the starting line, bumping umbrellas with the other 6,000 undeterred participants. He was only slightly stressed with the multitask of holding my brand new camera, figuring out how to use it, and documenting the race without getting it or himself soaked.
The run itself would have been easy if the course had been wide enough to handle the bulging pack. I jostled my way through the first two miles, praying that I would not slip or trip or otherwise end up like the few unlucky runners who landed heels over head in the street and bushes. As one would expect, a lot of non-runners run in this race. And they act, well, as one would expect. I'll be nice and leave it at that.
As to the doughnuts, it was quite a scene. The last 1/4 mile to Krispy Kreme was lined with folding tables weighted down with thousands of square white boxes, the empty lot to the right filled by runners with fistfuls of doughnuts. I grabbed my dozen and found a spot to start inhaling. As planned, I squished 4 together and ate them as one. Though my strategy was not an original idea (as my husband so helpfully pointed out), I did set a trend among those around me who all started out eating doughnuts individually, but ended up following my lead, sugar-sticky hands and all.
The first 8 were slow but no sweat. The little smiling blonde girl standing nearby stared at me just hard enough to keep the last 4 down. I ate the last few bites as I walked around the corner to wave my empty box in victory. I hadn't registered as challenger (I opted in as a 'casual runner') which I now regretted enough to daringly run through the official "chute" anyway.
Surprisingly, the last two miles back to the bell tower were not all that difficult. There was an unfortunately placed dead opossum, but I otherwise had no trouble keeping the dozen down and mercifully missed seeing anyone else losing their load.
I ended the race in 57:10 (the objective was 'under an hour'), in the top 1/3 of the female runners. It had rained the entire time, but I had dressed smart and stayed relatively warm and dry. The husband and new camera somehow picked me out of the crowd in time to get a few good victory shots. The empty box had all but disintegrated on the return trip, but I still had it, folded into a soggy clump.
Even after a large latte, I started feeling groggy on the way home. But I somehow completely dodged the anticipated queasiness. By the time we got home, I knew that I had a choice: crash on the couch, unlikely to move the rest of the day, or keep moving and possibly have enough energy to enjoy the rest of the weekend. I chose to run 6 more miles on the treadmill, followed by a couple hours of homework, followed by another concert and evening out in Durham.
And, of course, the next day was Super Bowl Sunday. The weekend was as wall to wall packed as the few days preceding it. And then it's back to Monday......
This pace is, of course,unsustainable. The problem is, where most people can say that they just need to learn to say no - to invitations, requests, etc. from other people - I have to learn to say no to myself. And we all know that I don't listen well.
p.s. My husband sent me this link today, to one of his blog entries from 3 years ago. Hilarious.
http://alanporter.blogspot.com/2008/12/running-eating-puking-for-good-cause.html
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