Should have scratched

All signs the last few days have been pointing to not doing the Hot Chocolate 15k today. Of course it started last week when I had a minor accident that rendered my knees useless, followed by not having time to do any sort of short run to see if my knees would hold up for 9+ miles. Then yesterday Adam came home at 2:00 so that we could go to Fair Park to pick up my race packet and avoid rush hour traffic. We BOTH had crisis at work and ended up not leaving until 4:30. Traffic was so bad the usual 45 min drive took 1 1/2 hours. It literally took less than 5 minutes to pick up my packet so we were heading back north in the thick of Friday rush hour traffic. We got back to Plano at 7pm. Wow, we could have been almost to Austin in the amount of time we drove 30 miles downtown and back.

I'm committed to a fault, so I was not even deterred when we got an email late Friday night from the race coordinator saying the weather was going to be so bad that if you could not keep a 12 min pace you would have to switch from the 15k to the 5k due to risk of hypothermia. Yes, this race in DALLAS had a risk of hypothermia because the starting temperature was 28 degrees with a 15 degree windchill. 17mph winds in 28 degrees is just an awesome race forecast.

I still got up at 5:45am and put on a bazillion layers and started to make the trek back to Fair Park...I honestly felt like I had just left. It was smooth sailing until I hit the ramps that you must choose I-30 or I-45. I-30 is the only way I know to go to Fair Park so I sat and sat and sat in the horrid traffic. Surely, there weren't this many idiots that were out in the "feels like" 15 degree temperature to run. Then I saw the stalled car that was causing a gawkin backup and had high hopes I'd be in the fair grounds in no time. Nope, barely moved. Then there was a 4 car pile up about 3 cars in front of me = AWESOME! It's approaching 6:50 and we were to be in our corrals by 7:20. I was panicking to say the least. Then here comes the 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, and 2 police cars. Wow, that was fast...they are coming to help all these poor runners standing out in the "feels like" 15 degrees in the 4 car pile up in front of me. Unfortunately no, they were going to help the apparent massive wreck ON the I-30 exit bridge.

Uh, screw this. I bailed onto I-45 at the last possible second. No idea where the hell it goes other than to Houston which didn't sound quite so bad at the moment. So I called Adam and said, "I'm about to exit Martin Luther Kind Blvd. which I know is not a good idea in any city so can you please help me figure out how to get to Fair Park from 45?" I wasn't about to pull over in the worst part of Dallas and try to figure out the navigation system in Adam's new car or on the iphone. Besides I can't read a map while driving and I wasn't about to do it in this area. And then there it was, a car with a marathon "26.2" sticker on the car in front of me. OMG! No marathon runner would be in this area of Dallas before 7am on a Saturday unless they were headed to the fair grounds to run. Thank you hallelujah!

I followed the marathoner and pulled into the parking lot at 7am. Made a last minute decision to ditch a top layer and not do a 'drop bag' because at this point I didn't have time to deal with anything more than a bathroom stop and finding my corral. They let the 5k-ers start before us. If it "feels like" 15 degrees why should people running 3 miles get to start before those running 9 especially when the race coordinator themselves had warned us of the risk of hypothermia yet they are the ones keeping us outside from 7:20 until 7:55 waiting to start. After all this, I'm still not thinking "I shouldn't have come." It didn't hit me until the first mile...

Right before I left home, I made a snap decision to wear two pair of socks. The ones I ALWAYS wear for long races with a pair of Columbia liner socks for warmth. This was the "I shouldn't have come." mistake. The first mile I stopped not one, not two, but THREE times because one of the Columbia socks was a quitter. Really a quitter sock is going to do me in after all of this?? A "quitter" is a sock that won't stay up and it bunches up in the arch of your foot. It is literally the worst under normal circumstances but MUST be addressed when you are about to run 9.3 miles on it. So each time I stopped I tried to pull it up so it would stop slouching down and nothing worked until the third stop when I sat down, pulled off my shoe and two socks and literally started over. I pulled that Columbia sock up to the point it hurt my toes and some how folded it over the top sock so it wouldn't slouch back down. This mistake cost me a precious amount of time.

My first two mile pace was 10:30 putting my 5k split at 9:54 pace. I tried my best to make up the lost time and improved to 9:31 pace for my 10k split and then 9:13 pace for my 15k split. I finished at 1:28 which was only 1 min slower than my last 15k so I'll take it. As I crossed the finish line, they handed me some water and Ghiradelli chocolate and I walked straight to my car. I did not go to the post-race party. I didn't want the hot chocolate or the chocolate fondue. All I wanted to do was puke followed closely by burning a pair of Columbia socks. I called Adam and my Mom to tell them I survived, sat on the heated seat until my butt thawed out, and then started to make my way back to I-30. The only thought I had as I pulled on the highway was "I should have scratched." no amount of chocolate is worth this!

Editor's Note: "Scratched" is a term that is used in track and field, horse racing, dog racing, etc when at the last minute you do not compete in the race.