Another five miles

Yes, my faithful reader, I am going to bore you with another race recap before getting on to my promised vacation posts.

Today's race is called Hot Dam, and for good reason. Seriously, we could just call it Dam Hot, but then we run a strong risk of offending half the local population. Alas. Anyway, this is the hottest race of the year (why we can't start at 7 AM, instead of 8, I shall never know), and the course takes us by the dam in Canyon Lake. Twice. Unless you are a short-distance person and only run the 2-mile course, in which case you never see the dam and might well think that the name is actually a commentary on the weather.

Anyway! We had a bit of a departure at the beginning; the man handed me my bib number and said, "Write an emergency contact number on the back of this for us, please." I said, "Okay," and wandered away thinking, 'Write it with what? Should I stick my finger and write in blood? My emergency contact doesn't have the car, it's here with me! What kind of race are we running out here today, anyway?' and so on. (BTW, I did stick my finger with a pin while putting on my number. Just goes to show that one shouldn't tempt fate, not even in one's own private thoughts. The Lord may be in need of amusement.)

I found a friend who is also on the board and asked her about this new policy, and she reminded me that a runner went down at last month's race, requiring an overnight stay at the hospital. Oh, yeah. Suddenly, all has become clear. So, I wrote Chad's number on the back, knowing that it would do no good whatsoever unless he had to say, "Yes, take her to the hospital," if I were unconscious. And I sincerely hoped that if I did go down, someone would announce the news to our friends from church who are also in the running club, and that they would be so kind as to get my car and drive it home.

The only thing of note that happened during this race was one of the aid stations running out of water. I don't really drink much water while racing; I generally use it for dumping over my head. However, there are not a lot of circumstances in which I would dump a cup of Gatorade on my head. If I were that hot, I'd just call it a day. Especially since the Gatorade was lukewarm. Ick.

So, I finished. No PR today, but better than I expected, given the temperature and the hills. And it was a fun race, in which no one required medical attention. Always a good sign.

Bright and shiny

It took five hours of my life and hunk of cash, but this baby now belongs to me:




Oh, yeah, this is a fun bike to ride!