This was actually my first 10K and my goodness was it an experience. You wouldn't think there's much to a 10K race: it's not that far and all you do is run. Well its not so much the race itself, but how I ended up.

The story starts Friday, August 24. The race is out on Long Island and I'm in central Jersey so I call my friend in Babylon and see if I can crash there since I don't feel like driving 1.5-2 hours in the early AM on the 26th. He's cool with it and another friend comes along to hang out and cheer me on. We end up at a beach house on Fire Island Friday night into Saturday which is like my old college frat house.

Instead of eating healthy and going for a short run to stay loose, I'm drinking beers and doing shots in a horse-shoe tournament. From there we figure it'd be best to get back to my friend's house early-ish Saturday night and I'm in bed by 11.

Sunday morning I wake up first to my cell phone's alarm and I'm dressed and ready to go by 7. My friend whose house it is is up next and lets my other friend know the bathroom is free. Fifteen minutes later we still haven't heard any movement upstairs. I'm starting to freak because I like to get there a bit early and its getting pretty close, the race starts at 8:30 and all. I go and tell him we're leaving in 10 with or without him and he finally gets up.

We figure its best to grab some food so I'm not dying on the course and stop for the most logical thing: egg and cheese on a bagel and an OJ. We get to the parking lot and eat kinda quick but I've got at least a half hour to digest so I'm good. We walk over to pick up my number and it looks like they're just setting up. On closer inspection, there's quite a few shoe tags missing from the box. That should have been the first couple of clues. The lady behind the desk asks if I want a number, and I say "of course, this is a race and all." She looks at me like I grew a second head and says "well, your late, do you still want to start?"

Late?

I say "doesn't the race start at 8:30?" "No, it started at 8." I look at my watch and it says 8:06. "Crap, ok, gimme the tag and zip tie" I say and people stop what they're doing around me to watch as I slip it on quick and pass the number I didn't bother to put on to my friend who slept in and haul where they tell me to go.

No warm up. No stretching. Just panic.

I'm tearing down this dirt path looking for the start line and the road while the volunteers and trying to encourage me with "don't worry! you'll catch up!" and "here comes the 1st place winner!" I'm still looking for the start line when I pass the first other runners and the 1st mile marker.

Suddenly "Dirty Sock" makes a whole lot more sense. I didn't know it was a trail run.

I slow down a bit to my normal race pace because at least I'm already on the course. Its a nice course too, being the horse trails between Babylon and Belmont Park. Its been raining all week so its a bit muddy and they didn't quite catch all the droppings on the course ahead of time, but its still very pretty. I actually hit the "play" button on my mp3 player now, but I seem to have lost one of the ear buds. It was simply not there, which didn't make sense, but whatever. Gotta get that music going to keep me focused.

Around mile 2.5ish after I get into the park my breakfast decides to hit bottom. Everyone I've passed in the last 10 minutes slips right by me as I hobble along trying not to lose that breakfast. A water station helps a little bit and by mile 3 I'm back in it.

I catch up to at least a few of the people that passed me as I duck so as not to hit my head on the small overpass along a brook. I'm feeling ok as we head out of the park and back on the trail where the mud is deep enough to steal your shoe and I'm running at the edge of the trail getting hit by tree branches. This clears up and I'm finally back to where I was before the part I had to walk as we hit mile 5.

Huzzah! Mile 5: I'm almost done. I take the sunglasses off my head that've been slipping off the whole time because not only are the trees dense enough to block the sun, the sky has gone all cloudy. The thought of more rain doesn't even cross my mind as I'm feeling the effects of that lack of stretching earlier.

My calves are burning, I'm feeling like this last mile is way too long when I hear the announcer at the finish line. I see the big clock and crowd as I round a corner and sprint my way to an "official" time of 1:10:ish. (I still have to look that up) The people at the end hand me a water bottle that I rip open with my teeth as they cut the sensor off my shoe and I'm wondering where my friends are. They come walking back from the finish line itself. I was so focused on being done I didn't even hear them cheering as I came out of the woods.

And that was the end of that as it starts to drizzle and I'm in dire need of a shower.

So yeah, bad way to start a race leading to my best 10K time ever! (and we'll ignore that it it was also my first)

:D