not quite dead last

Woke up on race day (Saucon Valley 10K) with a thunder storm and torrential rain. Was not thrilled. By the time I left for Bonnie's it was raining normally. At her house it was a drizzle. By the time we reached the race there was no evidence of rain whatsoever. We were in Center Valley. WTF?

It was humid. Really humid. Bonnie regretted immediately wearing a short sleeve shirt. And it was grey. But it didn't rain. A couple times the sun even came out.

We arrived at the race and went to check in. They couldn't find me on the list. I thought I registered weeks ago. Did I? They left me in anyway.

We lined up on the Saucon Valley Rail Trail and waited. That's where we took the picture above. Then the horn blew and we were off. Bonnie chose a pace that was really, really fast. It's like "where's the fire." I was exhausted by the end of mile one. We were walking 4 MPH! That is a 15-minute mile. Holy moley.

Shortly we were passed by Michele, the walking coach. She was about a 12-minute mile. I think secretly Bonnie wants to go that fast. I had to run a few steps to keep up occasionally. We were close to the turn when we saw Michele. I told her if the timers were going to turn off the clock to break their arms. I was only half kidding.

At the turn we were together. When we got around the turn she was 30 feet in front. How the heck did that happen? When I caught up, she was trying to catch the run-walkers in pink. She had met them earlier in the bathroom line.

We returned to the start line, then went down the hill and around the baseball field toward the finish. That's when Bonnie got a second wind and took off. She finished the race about 30 seconds in front of me.

Michele was waiting for us at the finish line, cheering us on.

Bonnie finished in 1:38:28. Me in 1:39 solid. Five minutes below last year's time. A personal best.

saturday, the main event

4:45 am came early yesterday. The sleepy half-marathoners got up and dressed and headed out of the hotel at 5:30. We —Bonnie, Megan (with a foot injury), Lydia and I—were not alone. The lobby of the hotel was filled with half-marathoners.

It was cold out when we left.

We arrived at to Presque Isle at 5:40, and to the parking area at 6. There was a steady stream of traffic headed in. When we arrived at the designated parking, the lot looked filled. We didn't want to go to the next lot. Who wants to walk more? Lucky for us they opened more spaces in the front of the lot. Yeah us. Briefly, we had a front row spot.

They asked us to arrive an hour early, and we did. But we didn't want to stand around in the cold. So we sat in the car until 6:45. The sun was up and it was considerable warmer.

Traffic must have been really backed up. They didn't start the race till 7:20. Bonnie of course took off with a start, leaving the rest of us in her dust. I managed to catch up to her by the half mile mark. My goal was to stay caught up till mile 9. I did, but it was exhausting.

Megan and Lyd walked together the first four miles. Then they split up. The race went from one end of the island to the other and back. The turn point was about 6.5 miles. I think we had passed 7 when we heard Lyd on the other side of the bushes. She was a mile to a mile and a half behind.

I kept losing and catching up to Bonnie. She had made friends with the walkers in front of us—Dr. Brian, Uncle Bob and the son. Dr. Brian makes Bonnie look slow. But she never lost a beat. Me, I lost many and had to power walk often to keep up.

By mile 9 I couldn't keep up any more. She went ahead and soon was out of site. A little while later I saw Megan talking to her.  Where did she come from?

Soon Bonnie took off and I caught up with Megs, we finished the race together. I can't remember times, but Bonnie was around 3:31 and came in third in her age group.  Megan and I came in around 3:34. When we finished I had Megs call Lydia. She had just crossed 11 miles and wanted to give up. Her hip pain was back. Megan yelled into the phone "YOU ARE NOT GIVING UP. Aunt Gayle will meet you at mile 12."

And I did. We walked the last mile or so together.

After the race we went to Bob Evans for a huge breakfast. Then we went to the movies.

I also earned my 35,000 steps badge on FitBit. I can't possibly see how I'd have a 40K day unless I did the one day hike again.