Florida Virtual Halloween Halfathon, October 2012
The Adventures of Ness the Hedgehog...
Virtual Florida Halloween Halfathon, Take 1: Started out just about 5am, headlamp and snazzy dayglo reflective vest, on my merry way, with my goal of hitting miles between 8:00 and 8:12 min/mi pace(MP), and trialing candy corn as a possible run fuel. Got about a half mile out, headlamp started fading, then by mile 1 had died off, so ducked back over toward the house(.25mi detour), stopped the garmin at the front door (cheating, I know...), ran upstairs, grabbed new batteries, ran back downstairs, and out the door. Cut back over to where I had left off, got another ¾ of a mile, and started having cramping. Lovely. Opted to head over to the high school instead of the house, ended up having to walk pretty much THE ENTIRE MILE it took to get there(eyeing a lot of people's bushes along the way, esp since it was dark...), but managed to make it in one piece. Decided I was going to "restart" my race, since it really hadnt gotten off on the right foot, and since I now felt ok, even though it meant 3.36 miles thrown out. Sooooo.....
Virtual Florida Halloween Halfathon, Take 2: Reset the garmin, and took off to go from the school back to where I had left off on my route(i run through neighborhoods with lots of connected streets, so you can kind of go here there and everywhere), and resumed. Got about a mile from this point, pulled out my clif bar pieces, and proceeded to drop half of them so that they bounced off my still running feet and into someones yard! Tried to look, but took dark, even with the headlamp- URGH, but at least I had grabbed jelly beans in addition to the candy corn that I was planning to trial near the end of my run, since my goal for this race was to make myself tired enough that I couldnt chew. Ran along for a bit, enjoying the dark. Grabbed some jelly beans, managed to drop a bunch...really gotta work on getting them out of the bag! Kept on my merry way, and turned into a neighborhood, where I had the fun of seeing bunny eyes hopping across my path. Got closer, and realized this was definitely a Pet Bun, and not a Wild Bun(the enourmous size-bigger than Serena, snowy white body, and splotchy brown dots were a dead give away), so I realized he wasnt supposed to be out! Tried to call him over, no luck with kissy noises or bag crinkling, and he hopped over near someones front porch, so I decided to give it a few minutes, cause I didnt want to be the creepy wierdo in someones front bushes! Ran back through past the house a couple minutes later, Bun is now UP on the front porch, im really not going up there! So went on my way, ducked in and out of a couple more roads, then decided to double back, make sure I couldnt catch him. Ran through that neighborhood again, no Bun, so hopefully he found home again! Started to make my way back home, realized I had nearly drained my camelbak, and needed a pitstop, so back toward the athletic fields, looked at the distance, took a victory lap around the track, and ended the HM at the same portapottie I had started it at exactly 1hr49min and 13.21 miles earlier! So then wrapped up with a 1.5 mile run home, for 14.71 on Take 2(18.07 total). Didnt really accomplish my goals though- I could still chew, and I only hit 2 miles within MP range, and just barely. So I definitely need to learn to push more for MP miles, and not drop food, and not go chasing after adventuring pets!