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October 09, 2005
Oh, the Drama
Thank God the rain has finally stopped. I don't mind running in the rain, but I don't particularly like standing around at races in the cold rain or driving on the highway in the rain. I did a lot of both of these things this weekend.
Brad and I got up at 5:15am to go to the B.A.A. Half-Marathon in Boston. I was sooo tired that I couldn't even keep my eyes open. It was raining a lot at first, but the rain lessened before the race started. I wasn't freezing at first, but got very cold about 20 minutes into the race. I hung around with Alison, P., and Blondie. This was my first time meeting Blondie. It's interesting to put a face to the name. I expected her to have really long blond hair, but it's actually short.
The drama began when Brad didn't appear at the finish. As more time went by, I started to get nervous because I knew that even if he slowed down tremendously, he should have finished. I checked at the medical tent (Am I neurotic or what?), but he wasn't there. Eventually, Alison, Blondie and I started running the course backwards since we were going to run for 30 minutes. We didn't see him, of course. I went back to the medical tent where they were able to track him down. He was on the "sweeper bus" and got back to the finish area about 2:40 into the race (I think?). Mind you, had he finished, he would have been around 1:10 or so. That meant I was quite worried for a long time. It turns out he strained his hamstring just past mile 7. It wasn't a good day for a PR, but he was running well place-wise. I have to thank Alison, P., and Blondie for being there during the drama, and Mary for patiently checking in to see if we were ready to run since she was soaking wet and cold from her own run. I'm just sorry we couldn't run with her.
When we got back from the race, we slept for 2 hours. Then, I drove to my Mom's in Northampton for my birthday dinner/party. It was nice to be able to hang with my family for a while. Brad didn't come because he's working tomorrow. He wanted to, but I'm not a big birthday person, so I didn't think it made sense for him to drive 2 hours to a party only to go back a couple hours later. I'm staying here tonight and bringing my sister back to college on the way home. Tomorrow is a day off from running, which is too bad since there are multi-colored leaves all over the ground here. It's absolutely gorgeous here. Maybe I'll go for a walk.
Posted by Caitlin at October 9, 2005 09:42 PM
Comments
So glad to hear Brad was not too badly injured. How long will the strained hamstring take to heal? Mark thought he saw someone drop out around the half way point. Thanks for the update. I thought the same thing about Blondie, that she'd have long blonde hair! :) It was great to see you. Sorry we did not get a chance. I hope we can get together for a longer period of time at the cross country race in Franklin Park. Hope you get to go for a walk or bike ride in Northampton.
Posted by: mary at October 10, 2005 11:31 AM
Happy birthday! I'm happy to hear that Brad is pretty OK. The weather was so cold and wet, my two least favorites. It was really nice to meet you and put a face with your name!
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at October 11, 2005 07:43 PM