Beat the Bridge

We did not beat the bridge.

Sometimes we are not too smart. Last night we went out with friends to watch the Sounders game and the Manchester United game and drink some beers...and some Bailey's and some vodka 7-ups...We didn't get to bed until late and I woke up every hour on the hour for reasons completely unknown to me. I guess you could say 7:30 came very early, and I was too exhausted to remember to eat anything before we left for our run (not to mention that we were dumb enough to SHARE a caesar salad last night and call it dinner...). To make matters worse, I have not really run in about 2 weeks, so the race was looking a bit ominous. Kyle kept saying that we set our alarm for too late and that we were never going to make it on time. That added to the pandemonium that is getting ready for a race at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Once we got in the car we both realized we didn't really want to be doing it AT ALL. Kyle kept saying, "We're going to be late. We're not going to make it!" I said, "DRIVE SLOW."

So a little about the run, Beat the Bridge is an 8k race to benefit juvenile diabetes research. The race begins at Husky Stadium, runs across the Montlake Bridge, then two miles to the University Bridge. The second bridge is 2 miles away from the starting line, and it goes up exactly 20 minutes after the start of the race. So the point is to run fast enough to beat the bridge...to cross it before it goes up and then continue on for the rest of the run. (Don't ask me why they measure the race in kilometers, but then call the bridge the 2 mile point and have balloons at each mile marker...but anyway.) Now by now we all know that I am not a fast runner. I run for the distance and the workout and definitely not for the speed...unless I'm sprinting, which feels far more natural. We did not beat the bridge...by about 10 seconds. Had I known that everyone else would continue to run across the bridge even after the lights turned red and the barriers came down, I'm sure we would've gone across...I guess we know for next year! At least I got to find some porta-potties and solve one problem...

So on a scale of one to ten, a 1 being that we sat down at the starting line and let everyone trample us, and a 10 being that we won the race, I would give us about a 2.5...we moved our bodies for an hour an no one died. (Yes, it took us an hour. Shut up.) If nothing else, I would say I'm remotivated because I feel like I'm losing a little bit of my fitness as far as running...definitely have to get back to it this week! Another run tomorrow. So in that way, I guess it was a success. And I got a free banana.