Notes
My first solo organized outing finally arrives today, with M cheering me on from the sidelines and my growing aggressive/OCD targeting set on the likes of Harold Hull, Brandon Marshall, and my barefooting "mentor" Ric Villarreal... All actually works out about as outstandingly as I could have hoped - M and I early on spy Ric and Shirley as the crowd is lining up at the Start, and we all share a good few minutes of pre-race conversation and well-wishes. The gun goes off, and shortly afterward, as I'm already sucking a little too much wind with the accelerated (and unfamiliar) pace, Ric and I find ourselves running side by side, and he's still offering up words of encouragement - With small amounts of talk, I get to run with him for what overall amounts to about maybe a third of the race, and it is highly cool... My encounters with "Barefoot" Brandon, however, are few but entertaining. I realize early on when he passes me (quietly and without any barefoot comment or interest) around Mile 1.5 that I'm not going to be able to beat him, but the green shoes he's got on definitely catch my eye. I see him again coming toward me right around the Mile 2.75 turnaround, and again immediately following the run, but each time the determined focus he has on anything other than me brings a smile, as well - I've no great interest in being buddies or anything else really to do with him, but it just seems that the very sense of bond and community that Ric so exudes is totally absent from Brandon. I stand by my sense that Brandon's in it (inasmuch as he actually is "in" it) totally for the simple self-promotion and glory. Whatever... And even as I'm deteriorating heavily from Mile 3 onward, and mentally kicking myself for every one of the maybe 20 people that pass me along that stretch, I keep my run together (without walking!) enough to at least finish ahead of Harold Hull, who really did seem to hang in tough himself. Kudos to him, and I'm glad to see and be able to quickly congratulate him with Kelly as I'm searching out M post-finish...
As an aside, the four-ish pair of Ibuprofen taken since mid-day Saturday definitely seem to have been of help with the race, even though now, writing a couple days later, some of the aching and pad sensitivity has returned. I am totally fine with it, and I knew it was coming, and I don't expect to shirk my healing duties (even if I may be opting to put them off for a bit,) and I'll definitely plan to remember the tabs again for the next race. Likewise, my branching out to include a medium Tim Horton's coffee roughly two hours before our departure also seems a potentially valuable addition - Whether or not any large-scale benefit is given to my race time, I am totally at my jacked-up peak and a fair amount lighter when the gun goes off...