And they told us experimentation was bad back in high school...

Another run, another bunch of things to try out...breakfast was a two-part affair this morning. I started with a peanut butter Clif bar (pretty good, actually) before I walked the dogs.

Part 2, the pre-run fueling portion of this morning's breakfast, consisted of a roll with cheese, ham, and a small slice of some sort of salami/pepperoni, and a seriously tasty pastry called a "snuggle." It's like the love child of a bear claw and baklava and chock full of carb-y sugary goodness. ...Don't look at me like that! It's fuel!

Next, I packed my run snacks: water, pretzels, and Clif Shot Bloks, cran-razz flavor. Betsy gave them to me for my birthday! (I was thrilled that I did not have to go hunt them down. A very useful gift!)

Today's run: the Amanda 10-K. You've never heard of it because I was the only one running it. The course consisted of two 3.1 mile loops, with my car conveniently parked at the start line and at mile 3.1 to act as a water/shot blok station. All this for a mere .75 entry fee! (I had to put enough quarters in the meter to buy 90 minutes of park time.)


The weather was beautiful. The temperature was in the upper 20's when I left the house, but that big halogen streetlight was in the sky again, making everything that much more pleasant.

And look! There's this weird yellow-green stuff hiding under the snow! Do you think it might be some kind of mold?

Anyway, I drove to my parking lot/start line and walked around a bit to warm up, and then I was off! The Amanda 10-K was underway, and I was leading the field! Heck, I was the field! The course began with a slight downhill, then leveled off for a good half-mile, letting me find my pace. Then it turned and went slightly uphill, and then the next quarter-mile looked like this:

Yes, that's definitely what you would call an uphill grade. No matter, I have fresh legs and it is a beautiful day. On we go...

Hmm, it seems this is getting a little steeper. Maybe I'll shorten my stride a little, keep good posture, keep my breathing nice and even...

Dear God, is this hill EVER going to end? *pant pant* Did someone magically teleport me to San Francisco while I wasn't looking? This course is way too hilly. What idiot of a race director picked this route?!

Taking smaller and smaller steps, I eventually make it to the top of the hill and enjoy the somewhat gentler and shorter downhill on the other side. One mile down, five to go, and I'm still blowing the doors off the rest of the field!

The second mile requires me to cross a major road, and boy am I irked when I have to wait a whopping fifteen seconds to cross the street. Time's a wastin,' and the rest of the field is breathing down the back of my neck! The turn puts me on a road with notable camber (slope to one side). It's banked as well because the road traces a big curve. My hips are very much aware of both of these issues. Fortunately, I turn off it after a half mile and run past my gym. Hi, gym! Hi, poor sad people on gerbil wheels and the indoor track with only teeny tiny slices of this big blue sky!

After getting stuck at a traffic light AGAIN, I run past the outdoor track where I spent so much time running last summer and start mile 3. Only one more mile until I get to the aid station! My pre-run fuel seems to be working pretty well, but I probably should have waited a bit longer between the end of the meal and the beginning of my run. An hour wasn't quite enough.

The final mile of the loop is mostly flat, except for the last two-tenths or so, which seem to go almost straight up. (Seriously, the race director should be sooooo fired.) I arrive at the "aid station" with a disappointing 33:22 on my watch for my first 3.1 miles. (The real time is probably more like 33:00 without the traffic-light interruptions.)

Now it's time for more experimentation: cran-razz shot bloks, here I come! I open the package and pop one into my hand. It's reddish-purple in color and has a consistency somewhere between jell-o that needs to set for about 10 more minutes and gummi bears. It smells okay, though. I pop it in my mouth, but it is too big to just throw down my throat. The "avoid the taste" strategy is not going to work here. I have to chew it.

The flavor is okay, but I don't like the texture very much, and the blok sticks to my teeth something fierce. I have to drink plenty of water to wash it down. I'm not a huge fan of gummi bears, but I think I would prefer them to this.

Hmm. I manage to get two shot bloks down before I put the package back in my trunk and crunch on a few pretzel sticks. Mmmm, salt. Good thinking of the volunteers to provide some pretzel sticks. Tasty.

After a very long break (6:09), I hit "split" on my watch and embark on loop #2, the second half of the Amanda 10K!

The first time up the big hill was hard; the second time almost makes me walk it. My feet are barely coming off the ground by the time I get to the top, and I am hunched over like I am nursing a cramp. But I won't have to take that hill again, thank goodness--this is a 10K, not a 15K! Down the hill I go, picking up speed and suppressing the urge to fling my arms out and yell "Wheeeeee!"

I manage to get across the big road without having to wait for the traffic light this time, and I'm jogging down the cambered curving road when I see a runner coming around the curve in the distance, running toward me. Looks like we have another runner in the Amanda 10K, even though she's going the wrong way.

I do a double-take and realize it's my teammate Liz! I wave at her and cross the street so we can say hello, stopping my watch as I reach her. She's out doing three miles today, and when I tell her I'm doing six, she gives me a smile and high-five. She is doing the same loop I am, just going the opposite direction. "I'll race you there!" she says with a laugh as she takes off. We're almost at the midway point of the loop--she might have a tenth of a mile less to run than I do, but that just provides some challenge.

I turn my watch back on, and heartened by the break, pick it up a little and run along at a nice clip. Now that I've run the loop once, the second time around seems a bit shorter. (Strange how that works...)

I am not held up at any traffic lights. I get to the abrupt hill at the very end and nearly make some poor woman break her neck as she jerks it around, wondering what scary stalker-y perv is pulling the heavy breathing act on her. "Sorry," I puff as I run by.

I round the last turn to the finish and look where Liz's blue top should be coming up the hill to my right, but there's no sign of her. I cross the finish line (which is, ironically, a stop sign) in a blaze of glory. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Amanda has indeed won the Amanda 10K!

My second 5K was definitely faster than the first: 32:02:75. Liz shows up a minute or two later, and I share my pretzels while we try and stretch our hamstrings against the hood of her car.

My total run time sort of depends on how you want to count it. My watch actually said 1:11:35 when I crossed the line, but that included the six minutes I spent getting water and snacks at the halfway point. If you really want to be mean and make me count the time I spent talking to Liz when I first saw her, it should probably be more like 1:14:35. However, if you don't include the chat-with-Liz time OR the water stop time, then that puts you down to 1:05:26. And if you want to be even more charitable and knock off a bit more for the two traffic lights I got stuck at, then the true run time is really more like 1:05:00.

So to sum up from the most charitable to the least charitable times, the paces would look like this:

• 1:05:00 equals a pace of 10:28 per mile. (Yowza!)
• 1:05:26 equals a pace of 10:32 per mile.
• 1:11:35 equals a pace of 11:31 per mile.
• 1:14:35 equals a pace of 12:00 per mile.

I'm inclined to go with the 1:05:26, myself, but of course I love the idea of having knocked out a 10:32 pace, even going up that monstrous hill twice...