The day before this race, Phillip and I arrived and hung out with Dave all day.
This race turned out to be everything I did NOT expect it to be. Given that my legs and feet have been so sore and debilitated the past couple months, I had the worst of expectations. Honestly. I expected my time to suck, I expected to really let myself down, I expected the weather might be perfect--making it even more of a depressing event because then not ONLY would I not do well, but I couldn’t say the weather had a factor in it-- and I expected to be late, or worse, not even be able to participate due to illness…the only reason I decided to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8k is because I had already registered for it, and because I had received a great opportunity to start at the front of a race with 30,000 participants! I wanted to enjoy that achievement.
However! Though my time was not as good as it probably could have been--considering once again I started out too fast--it was a PR, the weather was crappy awful, and I was actually feeling better than I had in a couple of months (I’ve run two races in 2008, one in January, which happened to be my first 8k, and a 5k on March 17th, both of which I was sick during). And really, that’s more than I could have asked for. Well, that, and to beat my two KR competitors, John and Dave.
Because of a previous 5k time qualification, I got to start in the Top 100 at the Shamrock Shuffle 8k. I’ve never had this sort of thing happen before. I didn’t really know what it would be like—until I walked up to the front and got in the "Top 100" area. I quickly realized how the race officials treat this level of athletes. They ask all kinds of questions, like, "Are you okay?" "You can warm up by running down the street to the crowd if you’d like" (which was about 400 yards), "does that watch measure your heart rate?" I saw so many of what I guess were elite runners, none of which I planned to even see again after the gun. There was a guy beside me that asked another guy what his planned time was for the 8k. The other guy said, "Oh, I think maybe I’ll try for 27:00 today. We’ll see how it goes." Are you kidding me? So nonchalantly, like he’s about to take a shower or something.
Anyway, I walked up to the Top 100 area around 9:00 am. The race didn’t start until 9:30 am, but I wanted to be there in plenty of time, so as for them not to close the gate and not allow me in. Plus, Phillip had already gone back to his place in the Second Wave of the Open Corral, and I didn’t have anything else to do. Turns out I was the first one there…oops. I didn’t see any other Top 100 people until probably 15 minutes later, when another girl came up and started warming up. I guess getting there that early is a no-no. Haha!
As I said, whenever I walked up to my area I didn’t see any bibs that had the numbers 1 to 100 on them, (the Top 100 had bib numbers of 1 to 100 on them), so I asked the Race Officials who were standing there where I was supposed to go. They said, "Oh, you’re the first one. You can just go up there, in front of the gates. You can warm up if you want."
Wow. It was just such an awesome feeling to be in that environment that the entire experience, race and all, just seems like kind of a blur. During the time I was standing there I heard my name, "Tonya!" and looked up to see a man calling me from the front of Corral A. I walked over to him John introduced ourselves, said our good lucks, and I went back up to my "area."
I had been warming up a little bit while I was standing there, jumping around, and occasionally I ran out towards the front where we were all allowed to run. The last time I ran out they started the National Anthem, and when I returned I got into place. I had decided I wanted to start in the back, considering I wasn’t planning on running a 27:00 8k. ? The National Anthem ended, the one Wheelchair participant started, and they didn’t waste any time—we were off.
I started out running only what I thought I could run, not worrying about my pace or anything, just listening to my body. I had told Phillip that morning that I wanted to try for 6:10 to 6:12 splits. I wanted to at least do that. The unfortunate thing is that I don’t have the exact splits; I only remember what I saw at the 5k marker, and I was pleased. I noticed, wow! I was at my PR for a 5k, 18:52. Imagine that. And only 2 weeks ago I ran a crappy (for me), illness-affected 19:25.
I ran along, feeling great until I reached mile 4. Then the fatigue started kicking in from going out too fast on the first 2 miles. Somewhere along 4.5 miles I saw John run by. $@*^$! I did all I could just to dart up the hill that came at the final close, but in the end I know that I probably had a terrible split for that mile. I don’t know, though, and UGGH I wish I did. It would be interesting to see. As we rounded the corner and started running towards the finish line, I just gave it my all and ran as fast as I could muster.
As I ran in there were race officials directing us. One of them said, "Team Nebraska on the right!" so that’s where I went, to the right. I ran through the finish line and was glad it was over. I had given it everything I had for that day. I walked on through and tried to digest what I had just done—I knew I had PR’ed! I also felt totally fine with my time, no matter what the official time was, because I knew that over the past couple of months I had even debated doing this race, mostly because I felt unconfident, achy, run-down, over-trained, etc. I also knew that I had run the first 5k of the race in what was my 5k PR, so I knew I still had that in me! My time ended up smashing my one and only PR for this distance (31:56) by 1:19!
Official time: 30:37 (6:09 average pace)
Age group: 7 of 4,429 (25-29) – Top .1%
Females: 15 of 12,175 – Top .1%
Overall: 192 of 22,558 – Top .8%
I was just walking along and I noticed someone walking towards me. It was John. We started talking and then Dave joined us from behind. We all walked the rest of the way to the end, meeting John’s wife along the way. I knew that Phillip would be finishing in a little while, so Dave and I walked over and got in the ridiculously long line to pick up our stuff. We had JUST gotten our bags and put our jackets on, and were going to walk over and try to get a photo of Phillip coming through the finish line, when I turned around and Phillip was walking towards us!
What????
His time ended up being 37:30 instead of the 45:00 he had projected. I couldn’t believe it! I almost fell over! That was great! I am so extremely proud of him. He’s come so far in his training, and just over a few months!
Dave left to find his girlfriend and Phillip and I walked over to the post-race expo to try to find some warmth. No luck there. We did find John, though, and he got to meet Phillip.
It was a great day for all. Phillip and I got to spend a weekend with some great people, and many thanks to Dave for all his hospitality! Unfortunately, we didn’t get a photo with John, even though we tried to find him again, right after we had parted ways at the expo. We didn’t get a big group KickRunner photo either. We just all weren’t together at the same time! But Phillip did get a photo of me with a bag-piper after the race, and of course the photos of us the day before the race, when we officially arrived in Chicago…
