It's also the first year they added a 10k, of which I was oblivious, much to my dismay. See, I wanted to walk out to St. Charles and catch some of the leaders before church, and I woke up late, threw on a sweatshirt, grabbed coffee, and walked as fast as I could to the turn-around. I was sure I'd missed the leaders. But nothing. Crickets. Finally, the lead car went by, sweeping the course. And more nothing. I pulled out my phone, found the website, and realized that the 10k started first, and the half and full were later by a whole half hour!
So I had some time to walk a bit further up the course. It was perfect running weather, cool and sunny, and I was happy to be out spectating. I knew I couldn't really cheer thanks to some terrible mouth sores.
I guess now is as good a time to tell you as any that I have been really struggling with awful oral ulcers due to my sulfonamide allergy. Ever since my bad reaction in the summer when I took Bactrim post-op, I've dealt with deep, painful ulcers on and under my tongue whenever I'm even slightly exposed to the drug. That's a huge problem, because at work, I'm exposed almost every day! Friday night I had to fill a prescription for Bactrim by myself, so I couldn't have one of my techs fill it - they had gone home. I gloved and wore a mask, but still, I woke up Sunday with a cut-up, bleeding mouth. Misery! I am sure I'll eventually figure this out, but for now, I could barely speak. So I was not actually able to do much cheering at all!
Finally, the men rounded the corner, and I picked out Ben Bruce, who I knew would be racing. He was neck and neck with another guy I didn't recognize; it turned out to be Mike Popejoy, who beat him by half a minute at the finish.
It wasn't long before I saw the women, and I was looking for Tia! I saw her name the week before in our paper's online article. She was listed in the elite field for the race. But first came Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, far ahead of any other women.
Then the pack started to get crowded, and before long, along came Tia, running with an incredibly smooth and long stride! I couldn't really cheer much, but I did get some terrible pictures (I didn't think to turn my auto-HD off, and the sun triggered it - it doesn't work well at all for action shots).
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| Tia in pink, on the sunny side of St. Charles! |
I really wished I was racing today! That beautiful course, the lovely weather (although I bet the full got warm in the sun as time passed), and many of my friends. Ah well, maybe another year.
I noticed that it seemed to be a slow race, despite the perfect conditions, and I think I'm blaming it on race saturation. I feel like we have so many races in our area (including, of course, one last week!) that our local competition is diluted. This year the women's race was won in 3:04, which would have barely gotten you in the top ten in other years. But another factor is the change to Competitor Group's elite program - without that, I don't think we'll a lot of women running in the 2:40's unless they are taking advantage of the course for a PR or a record.
Have you noticed your local races getting faster or slower? What's the cause? What's your theory?
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Wow, that is awful about your mouth sores... I hope they go away soon because that sounds incredibly painful. :(
ReplyDeleteI love spectating as it's nice to be out there cheering people on. It's a little bittersweet to spectate when you wish you were racing, though...
It was great to see you Sunday morning! I knew right away it was you. Thanks for cheering and taking pictures! All I can say is the half marathon competition was FAST!! I was really wishing I had been trained and ready for the full- especially when I saw the winning time. My theory is that the timing of the U.S. Half Maration Championship in Houston the week before pulled many of the fast elites out of the full. Janet was one who did the half in Houston so that is why she stayed with the half in NOLA.
ReplyDeleteI know it must have been hard not to race this year but you will be back at it soon. You were the number one spectator this year in my book!!
Yeah, the half was pretty fast, but it generally is. Last year wasn't incredibly fast - I think it was won in 1:20 - but the year before that the first woman ran 1:08 (but to put that into perspective, Kara Goucher was 5th!).
DeleteHi Gracie, I follow Lisa's blog (Lisa's Yarns) and read your comment on the British History podcast. Would you mind sharing the info on that? Sounds like something I would love! Thanks so much! (And incredible running!)
ReplyDeleteSure! It's actually just called "The British History podcast" and here is the website: http://thebritishhistorypodcast.com/
DeleteYou poor thing. Those mouth sores must be so painful. It takes away the joy of life when you can't enjoy your food or cheer for fellow runners.
ReplyDeleteThose are really cool pics with the morning sun coming through the trees, and really cool you got to see Tia. She is a great runner and I really enjoy her race reports.
ReplyDeleteThat is a real bummer about your oral ulcers, you need to figure that out ASAP - no doctor advice on this? I guess just avoid filling that prescription? I have no idea if races around me are getting faster or slower - I don't really pay attention to the winning time or faster times. And haven't you ran a 3:04 marathon before? You could have won the race haha
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't run a 3:04 - I wish! I am supposed to avoid all sulfonamide exposure, but - that's kind of hard since I'm a pharmacist!
DeleteYou make me so nervous with those mouth sores! Be careful, lady.
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely race saturation here in NYC - so many people running (and so many fast people, just by the nature of the high population, I'm assuming), that even my somewhat fast paces leave me far behind the leaders. The New York Road Runners races are always full of fast people, but a smaller group (although they've grown a bit) called NYC Runs has started putting on races that are cheaper than NYRR and pull in a smaller crowd that doesn't tend to be as fast. I've placed in age groups there...and I like that their race swag tends to be something different like a coffee mug or a neck warmer thing.
Being on the sidelines of races can be so hard, but those first races back are so, so sweet.