24 February 2013 ~ 0 Comments

Just Runnin’ In The Rain: Messa 8K Recap

By admin

Happy Sunday! I was so thankful to be able to sleep in this morning to recover from the past 24 hours.

Yesterday started nice, early and extremely wet at 6am.

When I woke up for the Messa 8K For H2O it was down pouring, seriously, cats and dogs were falling from the sky. I think I spent the entire hour before I had to leave trying to come up with a good excuse not to. But in the end, I had already made the commitment so I tossed on my older pair of Mizuno Inspires and headed to the race.

messa race

I wasn’t excited at all… In fact, I was pretty unmotivated. The only thing that did make me happy was that Dan was nice enough to let me use his NorthFace rain/wind jacket.

Of course it was huge on, but the wrists have adjustable velcro straps so I was still able to use my hands and wear my Nike+. Making it not so bad.

Once I got to the race, packet pick-up was super quick. They were serving up coffee, bagels, muffins and such during this pre-race event too which I thought was kind of strange.

There was a lull in the down pour and for a while I thought that perhaps we might get lucky!

folly beach messa race

No rain? It actually looks quite pretty!

I think the rain kept a lot of people away because I remember this race having a pretty decent turn out in the past. This time around the field was… small. Which always makes me nervous: only the hardcore runners come out in the rain, right?

Anyways, I waiting in my warm car until the start. Of course all the while, contemplating a quick get away. But again, I sucked it up and knew it was too late.

The race started and so did the rain. Ugh. So glad for Dan’s jacket!

the north face

The first 1/2 mile was spent giving myself a “suck it up and just run” speech. Right after this speech concluded, I was faced with a new issue: flooding!

There were parts of the road so flooded that the water came to my calves. I might have reacted like a girl at the first flood zone (the classic panic expression wondering how I could go around it), but afterwards I realized it wasn’t THAT BAD, in fact, even though my feet felt like bricks with all the water inside my shoes, it was kind of fun.

flooding folly

I am glad I had this mental change because we had about a half dozen calf-high flood zones during the 8K course.

Remember how I said I was excited to see how I could beat my previous time?

Results

Well, I did! But not the 10 minutes I wanted, I’ll give myself a break… I was running through water with more water coming down. My official time was 40.31 (my goal had been 37).

finish line

I took this after I finished, not while I was going towards it. Cheering peeps on.

But even still, I got 1st in my age group and 5th overall female. I’ll take it!

Once I crossed the finish line, I was surprised once more… no water bottles! They had a large water cooler with “serve yourself” cups which I did, but I’ve never been to a race that didn’t have water bottles.

Another thing missing? Post race concessions. This was a let down, especially since they had a pre-race spread. There wasn’t even an apple available to us. I hardly ever eat right after a race but considering it had been almost 4 hours since my breakfast I was really counting on that apple.

With the rain coming down, the lack of recovery fuel and soaking wet clothes I quickly changed into dry clothes (thanks for the suggestion Amy) before heading home.

wet-dry-messa

From soaking to dry, and yes those are Dan’s flannel pants!

I wouldn’t call it a glorious feelin’ but it was sort of nice runnin’ in the rain!

I will say that I know it’s not a reflection of what I am capable of during “ideal” conditions… so of course I was pretty hard on myself at first, but then I decided to chill out. After all, I was running!

There were times during my run that I was mad at myself for signing up but then I had a moment of clarity at mile 4: I am a runner.

For the past year if someone asked me if I was “a runner” I would shrug and simply say, “well, I like to run, but I don’t call myself a runner.” You know what… I’ve run races varying from 5Ks to 1/2 marathons just within the past 12 months. I laced up my shoes during a monsoon and ran through mini-lakes so I have decided to change my answer:

Yes, I am a runner. 

Suggestions For The 2014 Messa 8K:

Skip the pre-race fuel (every runner should be ready to run, not eat)

Have post-race fuel

Invest in a mic… 1-2-3 Go was really hard to hear until someone pushed me in the back to make me move.

Overall

gps-folly-messa13

It was a fun race, I learned a lot about myself and I love running on Folly Beach! It’s extremely flat and void of wind = awesome. Next year I will have the PR I was going for.

I Do’s: Photo Recap

After the race I got some work done then spent some time to look like a lady. Wearing fitness clothes all the time leads to major excitement when I actually get to wear something dressy.

The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride. Congrats to Jennie and Ryan! Here are a few of the pictures we were able to snap last night.

first-dance

Their first dance as Mr and Mrs. Jennie wore her Mom’s wedding gown, it looked amazing!me-dan-wedding

Me and the hubs… we clean up pretty well! carol-me-wedding

Remember Carol!? It was great to see her again.

center-tables

Gorgeous Hydrangeas for the flowers

thames-beach-band

The Tams played great shag music!

wedding-cake-table

Classic white cake with a vanilla buttercream icing. 

wedding-cake

How was your weekend? 

If someone ask you “what do you do”, what’s your response?

The post Just Runnin’ In The Rain: Messa 8K Recap appeared first on Lifting Revolution for Women – Change Your Life With Taylor.

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