{"id":2803,"date":"2011-09-06T22:58:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T02:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2011-09-06T22:58:43","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T02:58:43","slug":"number-2-run-four-road-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/number-2-run-four-road-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Number 2: Run Four [Road Races]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, so this was supposed to be about running four <a href=\"http:\/\/teampikermi.com\/\">pikermis<\/a>. But I decided to give myself a slight handicap after I ran pikermi <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2035\">number one<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2084\">explodinated<\/a> my foot.<\/p>\n<p>I figure, I&#8217;m allowed to dial the distance back a little if I spent six months barely able to walk, let alone run.<\/p>\n<p>Which I did.<\/p>\n<p>Ouch.<\/p>\n<p>So, I ran one pikermi, two 10Ks and a 5K. It was supposed to be three 10Ks, but I&#8217;m giving myself an extra, extra handicap because it was so effing hot on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Race 1: The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2035\">Worcester Half Marathon<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/photo1.jpg?resize=360%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Do you like how I thought I&#8217;d be back to running in a few days? Waaaaaaaah).<\/p>\n<p>Race 2: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2776\">The Pasadena 10K<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Pasadena 10K by hopers, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hopers\/5932225554\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6006\/5932225554_225ea7e087.jpg?resize=333%2C500\" alt=\"Pasadena 10K\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Otherwise known as the race where I pretended to be a celebrity)<\/p>\n<p>Race 3: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2766\">The Harvard Pilgrim 10K<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Pre-Race Photo by hopers, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hopers\/5906676283\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5032\/5906676283_a94c53fb4c.jpg?resize=374%2C500\" alt=\"Pre-Race Photo\" width=\"374\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Happy birthday, America. It&#8217;s stupid hot out).<\/p>\n<p>And, finally, the Malden 10K, otherwise known as the Malden 5K, otherwise known as the race where I almost melted like a popsicle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"photo.JPG by hopers, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hopers\/6122539652\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6080\/6122539652_a26a56e7e0.jpg?resize=374%2C500\" alt=\"photo.JPG\" width=\"374\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(The thing I like about this photo is the part where you can kindof sortof tell that I&#8217;ve lost 5-6 pounds).<\/p>\n<p>(Ok, half of that is the angle of the photo).<\/p>\n<p>Do you remember how I complained about how crazy it is to start a race at 10am? Well, I did. So, what did I do? I signed up for a race that started at <em>11am<\/em>. Because I&#8217;m not very bright. And I don&#8217;t learn.<\/p>\n<p>By 9am, it was over 80 degrees out. Which is about the point where I realized that I was well and truly screwed.<\/p>\n<p>This was a pretty casual race. They didn&#8217;t have timing chips. Our bibs said &#8220;Michelob Ultra&#8221; on them. The race organizers didn&#8217;t concern themselves with little details like asking for ID before handing out your number or ascertaining which race you planned to run in. Which is a good thing because, spoiler alert, I totally wimped out and ran the 5K instead of the 10K.<\/p>\n<p>It started hot, it just got hotter. I had spent the evening before eating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2799\">disgusting amounts of ice cream<\/a>. I didn&#8217;t really train enough. I pretty much set myself up to fail. Which is why, when we were two blocks from the 5K finish line and I had my choice about whether or not to go right and finish or go straight and keep running, I chose to stick a fork in myself.<\/p>\n<p>I was <em>done<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Do I feel bad that I wussed out? Kindof. Am I mad at myself because I didn&#8217;t train or prepare better? Definitely.<\/p>\n<p>Did I feel a little better about myself when I saw a dude getting treated for heat exhaustion before getting loaded into an ambulance? Maybe. Do I feel like a total douche for saying that. Oh hells yeah.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s sometimes hard for me to tell the difference between being smart\/not hurting myself and not pushing myself enough. After spending so much time hurt last year, I feel like I need to err on the side of not doing myself grievous bodily damage. But I also know that I need to test my limits or I&#8217;ll never get stronger\/faster.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m honestly not sure if I had another 5K in me.<\/p>\n<p>I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that, this time last year, I could barely walk and I wasn&#8217;t sure when I was going to be able to run again. To have subsequently finished two 10Ks, a 5K and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=2761\">Warrior Dash<\/a> is nothing to sneeze at.<\/p>\n<p>Now I need to pick another race.<\/p>\n<p>And train properly this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, so this was supposed to be about running four pikermis. But I decided to give myself a slight handicap after I ran pikermi number one and explodinated my foot.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[38,4,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-30before30","category-photos","category-running"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yggS-Jd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2811,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions\/2811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}