Down and dirty in Chicago.
As we planned for our our C3 (Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago) mother runner road trip, Sarah and I, naturally, discussed, via email, when we’d run. She floated the idea of my running the 10K at the inaugural Chicago ZOOMA Half-Marathon and 10K. I could run, she could set up our booth—she’s our primary merch girl—and then we could reunite and finish out the expo.
I didn’t write back a yes or no, because I wasn’t sure I was ready to pin on a race number after Ironmother. I knew I could run 6.2 miles, but I haven’t tried to run fast for 6 consecutive miles in, oh, over a year. Make that about three years, at least.
Sarah and I went out for a 6-miler on the Towpath in Cleveland on Wednesday morning, and it wasn’t the cakewalk I, a recently anointed Ironmother who was running at sea level, not the 5,280 feet I usually huff and puff at, was expecting. I didn’t feel great or swift, as I’d hoped, and so the idea of repeat performance on Saturday was not appealing.
But then the week went on, and we didn’t have a chance to run on Thursday. I wasn’t interested in running on Friday (Sarah ran 10 miles that day), so the 10K started to seem like a good option for me, given that:
a) I’m a much happier traveler after I run, and I was flying home on Saturday, the day of the race. Even though my tight hamstrings aren’t thrilled with the airplane seat, I have more patience to deal with all the turbulence, both real and virtual, that flying presents.
b) I realized I needed to pop my Ironmother bubble, and the estrogen-filled vibe of all-women’s race was probably the friendliest place to do so.
More on B: As you likely know, my day at Ironman Coeur d’Alene was nearly perfect. As much as I want to hold onto those memories for years, I also don’t want my amazing day to discourage me from putting myself out there when I’m not perfectly prepared. (Read: 99.9% of the time.)
After Ironmother, I definitely appreciate how amazing it feels to get so dialed in during training that you smash your race goals. But I also know how much work that is. I wouldn’t sign up for another race for years (forever?) if I clung too tightly to my Ironmother standards.
My Ironmother standards include great race pics. I was just grateful Sarah was at the finish line to get this shot.
Plus, I wanted to remind myself how fun it is to just jump into a race and spin the wheel. Some of my most favorite race memories are when I just say, this is where I am so let’s just go for it, like when randomly ran 13.1 with mother runner Cynthia at ZOOMA Annapolis.
Pre-race, I talked times with Sarah as she folded our shirts and I sat on a chair and wolfed down a banana. “I’ll be happy with sub-55 minutes,” I told her. She made some comment about me being a sandbagger, but I knew from my Cleveland splits that sub 9-minute-miles would be tough.
The start was predictably relaxed, and I tried to keep myself that way as well. “Easy, Dimity,” I told myself, “Just make this easy.” I visualized my feet as wheels underneath me, spinning quickly and with no friction. I chatted for a while with Amanda, another tall mother runner, who was going 13.1 as she trains for the Chicago Marathon. I embraced the fact that I’d be done with this race in less than 60 minutes. I took in the lovely , beautifully flat Chicago lakefront, and gave a silent thanks to the universe for letting me be active and smiling on a random Saturday in August.
Around mile 5, I made a conscious effort to pick it up. I passed another runner, started thinking about the finish line and stopped thinking easy and fluid. And then I tripped on possibly the only slightly medium-sized rock in the entire route, and went down hard. (There is, btw, no other way for a nearly 6’4″ person to go down. Hard is the only option.)
A few people nearby asked me if I was ok—the only thing truly hurt was my ego—and then, as I was pushing myself back up, a lady watching the race said, “I saw your talk yesterday at the expo yesterday. You were great!” Oh yeah: I give expert tips on race performance, then bite it on a completely flat race course. I thanked her, laughed at myself, walked for a bit to dust off, then began running again. I passed the runner again, and finished in exactly my goal time.
Maybe I should’ve bought a lottery ticket yesterday too.
The runner I passed (twice) also happened to be in the crowd when Sarah and I spoke. She stopped by the AMR booth to say thanks for the tips, and I just had to laugh again. I’m pretty sure Bart Yasso or Jeff Galloway don’t face plant during races, but hey: at least they liked our talk.
And I accomplished my goals. A: Thankfully, my flight home was smooth and I even slept (a rarity for me when I’m at 30,000 feet.)
And B: The Ironmother bubble is burst and the bar is reset to a comfortable, low level. All I want to do during my next race is stay upright.
Have you ever eaten dirt during a race? If not, do you ever just enter a race on the fly?
Yep–in a trail race at Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Tabernash. It might have been a tree root that tripped me up, but suddenly I went down quick into the dirt. Luckily, it was a nice stretch of trail with almost bouncy dirt as opposed to rocks or the packed-down, dried-out dirt that characterizes so many of the mountain trails.
I wiped out HARD less than 400 meters from the finish line of a Thanksgiving Day 5K. It was icy, and as I rounded the last corner sprinting into the finish, down I went, at the feet of a guy in a giant turkey suit. He was flapping his arms, asking if I was ok. I popped back up and finished my race. Had a wonderfully black and blue knee for about 3 days afterwards!
Oh no! I hope that you’re totally ok. I haven’t wiped out in a race, but I faceplant way more regularly than is normal during runs (on Chicago city streets and paved bike paths). I have an OSHA style clock going… “It has been XXX days since your last fall”. Actually, my last one was on December 4, 2012. This is an amazingly long streak. I still have a scar on my knee from that one, though.
Congrats on a great 10k!
Congrats on getting out for a 10K and meeting your goal!
Stay upright, indeed! See, my Thursday night goal doesn’t seem so silly :-)
So good to see you both! Congrats on a race well run
With a full fall schedule coming up, I don’t want to jinx myself but I have never totally gone down in a race. Will say another mother runner told me she went down during the Boilermaker and when she stopped to get cleaned up at a med tent, they would not let her finish the race. UGH! Glad you finished with a great time!
Not during a race, but plenty of times while training. And then there was the time I tripped over the curb running into Target. Yep, I caught the curb with my toe and jet propelled myself forward. I couldn’t get my legs under by body–you know that feeling that comes before you’re going to hurt yourself? I flew into the bike rack with my face. The next thing I knew, I had all these Target employees standing over me. Bought myself a ride to the ER and 5 stitches above my L eye. My mom should have named me Grace!
At the Med City Half Marathon last year, I bit it hard at mile 1.5 (I am also tall and not so graceful). My knees were bloody, and I thought if I could get to an aid station, it would be fine. I couldn’t find one, and as people were cheering, they’d get a little horrified looking at my knees and ask if I was ok. One spectator let me use their sprinkler to clean off my legs. I got to the finish line and went to the medical tent, and when I told all of the Mayo Clinic kids it had happened at mile 1.5, they said, “SHUT UP!” in disbelief.
I tripped over something (I don’t know what) at the Woodlands marathon right before mile 20. I “walked it off”, but my knee, hand and elbow were really sore for a long time. Even with the fall I still had a great PR for the marathon.
Ugh, you fell? The paths up there are so deteriorated from high traffic volume. My tight hammies now leave me kinda “shuffling” along, so I have to be very careful with footing so as not to trip myself because my feet catch on the ground all by themselves. And let’s be honest, I don’t need a deteriorated path to trip. I went down so hard on the lakefront path (near McCormick) last year that I had to TUMBLE ROLL out of it in order to keep from smacking my face on the black top. There wasn’t a hole, or rift in the black top, or anything on which I could blame this fall. Just me. :)
Great running with you for a bit on SAT. I wanted to talk to you more at the expo about the IM but didn’t want to monopolize too much of your time. I loved meeting both you and Sarah! And she is tall too!
Surprisingly I haven’t! I love that you reached that awesome goal during your race! 10K might be my favorite running race distance :)
I totally bit it at the 1 mile mark in a 5K. I got tripped going around a very congested corner. Needless to say I did a beautiful tuck and roll and managed to keep the earbuds in and the sunglasses on. I ended up with some pretty wicked road rash, hands, left knee, left shoulder, left hip. But I managed to PR. My brothers also ran the race, but finished ahead of me so they missed the epic fall. They were very suprised by the road rash when I crossed the finish line. They did think it was a pretty bad ass move to finish and be like “oh I’m bleeding? how’d that happen?”
But look at that smile! I tipped over off my bike during a duathlon, right at the top of a hill, trying to move out of the way of the lead biker who was on her second lap. The motorcycle escort person had just driven by. Someone slowed up in front of me and I could not get my foot unclipped as my wheel hit the curb. It was all very slow motion as I tipped right to the side and into the grass with my bike almost upside down on top of me. Other bikers looked at me and asked if I was Ok but no one could really stop on the hill. Definitely more embarrassing than anything else. Of course there was a photographer at the top of the hill! Fortunately he was focused on the lead biker and not my mishap. :)
Someone stepped on the back of my shoe during the Chicago Rock n Roll Half last month. I did not fall but had to get my shoe back on! She never said oops or sorry or excuse me. But I finished strong.
Yep, this spring I tripped over my own toes halfway through the run portion of a sprint triathlon and gave myself a pretty good case of road rash. I’d just been worried about wiping out on my bike! Still managed to finish a smidge under my goal time though :)
Wiped out in my neighborhood tripping over my dog. Of course, in front of neighbors. Both knees bloody, bruised and super sore. She crossed in front of me to attack a leaf blower. Also, thanks to your last “Follow This Mother” post, I signed up for the Philly Rock & Roll Half on 9/15. OMG!!! Training has been a bit rough to say the least. Apparently I forgot that I turned 48 and gained 5 lbs since my last half in October. I’ll be there though. Sub 2:00 is my goal.
I’ve been fortunate enough never to have fallen during a race although I came close at the 2006 VERY crowded NYC Marathon. My funniest fall was on a 20-mile trail run where I had loaded my pockets with chocolate GU packets. Took a huge fall but was able to dust myself off and go on. Neither my BRF nor I could figure out why runners passing us kept giving me the stink eye. Turns out one chocolate GU packet had exploded and the stain resembled….well, you can guess the rest.
Good on you, Dimity!
One of the nicest runs in this area was held a few years ago in memory of my son’s beloved cross country coach, at a local park where the kids had at least one meet every year. My high school years were pre-Title IX and I looked forward to experiencing the beautiful cross country course. I am a bit of a klutz, and thought I was being extra careful about the roots…even warned the teens behind me who were busy laughing and chatting. About 2 minutes after that, I was literally eating dirt! (And the teens just hopped over my fallen body and kept going!) Luckily, an acquaintance who was running with a struggling first-timer (who happened to have a water bottle) helped me up, and used the water to wash some of the mud off my face! It was still pretty obvious as I crossed that finish that I took a spill in the woods! I gained a whole new respect for those cross-country athletes!
Over the 4th of July weekend I was out running in my husband’s idyllic hometown (seriously, think Stepford perfect) and wiped out HARD on the lone crack in the town’s near-flawless sidewalk system. Both knees were bloodied and both hand had bits of gravel stuck in them. But I knew the worst part would be facing my hubby’s well-intentioned family who think it’s just wrong that I’m running and keeping active while pregnant. Of course baby was, and is, just fine, and the wounds on my body are healed, but dang, falling just SUCKS!
During my first and so far only marathon I was running down a jeep road. I thought I would pick up the pace a little bit and I hit – actually I don’t even know if I hit anything or just tripped – and I went all the way down. I tore a hole in my pants. The best part was – was that there was only about 15ish people running the marathon and no one was around me at the time!
Entering a race on the fly is kind of a goal of mine. Sounds weird. But I want my fitness to be at a level where I ran jump into a 5K or a 10K and just do it to do it!
I have fallen while trail racing. I almost always come out of the woods bleeding. :(
A friend and I were running on a local crush/run path one morning. This was a few years ago and we were in the middle of the C25K program. That morning was also the day that the local high school boys track team showed up. We could see them about 25 yards ahead, sitting on the ground listening to their coach. As we approached, we were at one of the points where you’re supposed to stop running and walk but pride got in the way and we decided to keep running… until my friend (seriously, it really was her and not me) tripped all over her feet and almost went sprawling all over a group of 16 year olds. I laughed so hard I almost wet myself and both of us had tears in our eyes as we struggled to get away with some semblance of dignity. They didn’t know whether to help the poor old women (we’re both in our 40’s) or jump out of the way… think “deer in the headlights”. They zipped past us about 5 minutes later, passed us again on the way back… and we were still laughing.
I bit it into the bushes in my first ultra. I think I just lost my balance vs. tripping on something. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt and no one was around to see. My worst spill was not in a race but on a training run. I totally bit it…full on superman on the ground, with a big oomph, on a the sidewalk next to a very popular road at around dinner time (read lots of cars driving by). . Two guys were right in front of me. They stopped, turned around, and asked if tey had made me fall. Nope…I tripped on nothing or as i like to say the sidewalk reached up and grabbed me. I was mortified and I was bleeding but just rinsed of my cuts with a water bottle and started running again.
I totally bit it while running the Baltimore Marathon in 2005. Yes, you read that right, running out around some fort right along the river (i.e. FLAT), the sidewalk jumped up and grabbed me. I was stunned, I’ve never fallen while running, and I don’t think my ego has ever recovered!
Yup….bit it at a water station at the Susan G Komen 5k. they had the water station set up on a bunch of pot holes in the road. grabbed my water, tripped in a pot hole and fell hard.twisted my ankle and had to walk a bit and run slow :( i said something to them about not having the water station set up on pot holes….when i came back through (an out and back)they had moved the station.