Blubber To Runner

A few weeks ago I mentioned that, based on a suggestion from Jennifer, I was going to challenge myself in a… different… way on June 24th – and invited anyone willing to join she and I to do the same.  That day, we were going to compete in two (2) 5K’s.  From a mileage standpoint I didn’t think it would pose a problem… what concerned me was the time between the two – one started at 9:00am and the other started at 6:15pm.  I’ll dispense with the formalities and drama… we did it!  It was the perfect end to one of the best weekends I have had in recent memory, so here’s the breakdown.

RACE #1

NAME:  The New York Giants Run Of Champions 5K

LOCATION:  Giants 🙂 Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

TIME:  33:34 (PR – previous best 34:40 set 5/20/12)

TOTAL B2R PARTICIPANTS*:  11 (!!!!!!!!!)

TEMPERATURE:  475 degrees Kelvin

* – “B2R Participants” = me and my friends 🙂

It was SO friggin’ hot.  First of all, it started at 9am; there is only one complaint I can make about this race and it’s that it started so damn late on a day in the middle of June.  Plus, it was mostly in the parking lot of a football stadium… how many trees provide shade out on those?  Yup… ZIPPIE.

And who wears LONG SLEEVES to run this race?  Yup… this guy.  See, after the nipple chafing episode a few months ago, I like to wear an Under Armour shirt of some kind underneath my regular shirt.  Well, I only have one sleeveless one… the rest have sleeves.  And since I’m running two races I had to decide which one I would wear long sleeves at.  9am or 615pm?  I went with 615pm – and that was the wrong way to go.  (** I was reminded that I could have probably washed the sleeveless shirt in between the two races… yeah, didn’t think of that.)

It was sweltering.  And there were 3,000 people running.  But there were 10 of my friends running with me.  ELEVEN OF US TOTAL!!!  Jennifer, Nancy, Martin, Joe, Amanda, Brian, Courtney, Mai, Hiba and Sara (** along with Hiba’s friend and Sara’s husband!)

Sara – 26:59 (SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!)

Mai – 29:13 (OK, y’all up here with these sub 30 minutes race times…)

Hiba – 30:03 (Close enough… I’m lumpin’ you in with those two)

Courtney – 30:19 (COME.  ON.  REALLY?!?!)

Brian – 31:55 (Brian after the race (I’m paraphrasing): “It was so hot, I had to run fast so I didn’t get suburn.” He really said that.)

Joe – 33:25 (Should have been WAY faster, but he had this chubby dude he was pacing…)

Gach – 33:34 (… the chubby dude Joe was pacing)

Nancy – 34:30 (Another PR for my original running partner!)

Martin – 35:16 (TT coming back strong from his toe injury)

Jennifer – 36:22 (2nd race back from a foot fracture… plus she was plotting for bigger things later)

Amanda – 44:54 (Not only was this her 1st race EVER, she stopped to assist a fallen competitor!)

I PR’d so I had an awesome run – and it was those people listed up there that helped me do it.  The finish line was the endzone of the football field.  I had grandiose plans of doing the Deion Sanders as I crossed, but was too damn hot and tired to even remember to do it, let alone pull it off.  Just an awesome, awesome race with the best running group I’ve ever been a part of.

But… the day wasn’t done.  There was another race to be run in a few hours.

________

RACE #2

NAME:  Fitzgerald’s 1928 Lager Run

LOCATION – Glen Ridge, NJ

TIME: 36:33.75 (Chip Time)

TOTAL B2R PARTICIPANTS: 2 (Jennifer and I)

TEMPERATURE:  More reasonable

So Race #1 ends and Jennifer and I immediately start plotting our next moves to properly prepare ourselves for the next race.  

4 beers and a few wings later, we’re ready for the mid-race nap.

(Did you seriously think we were gonna do anything different???)

So after the power nap we head over to the field, ready to accomplish this AMAZING UNHEARD OF feat of competing in 2 5K’s in 1 Day.  Jennifer’s in full-out Beastmode, rockin’ her freshly earned NYG 5K Dri-Fit Runners ass-kicking shirt.  Me?  I did something I still, a week later, can’t believe I did.  I wore compression shorts.  That’s it.  Just them, no shorts over them like I normally do.  I wore them alone.  

As you can see in the pic it’s not THAT horrific, but still… I understand the thought of me in those tight shorts is a little unnerving.  But I actually didn’t feel that uncomfortable.

That is until we got to the race.

Two things happened when we arrived:

1)  There were maybe 15 people minimum rockin’ the SAME freshly earned NYG 5K Dri-Fit Runners ass-kicking shirt Jennifer was… so this thought that we were doing something so crazy original and out-of-this-world was ripped from us – and honestly made us a little :(.