The best recap ever of today's Staten Island Trail festival pt.1

Today started out late last night really with me sitting in front of the teevee watching the drama "Sons of Anarchy". I never saw it before which of course means I watched three episodes in a row which  then meant that I didn't get to bed until 1:30 in the morning....not wise but damn that show is good.

 Anyway the alarm gets me up at 6:30am and I feel fine, I shuffle my way into the bathroom where I laid out my clothes the night before and I get dressed.....pretty standard so far I know. The damn dogs start warbling for food so I herd them outside, feed em and proceed to the race.

 The roads and the traffic were horrible. I barely made it. With tires screeching I slid into a spot Duke boys style, ran to the desk grabbed by bib pinned it right to my skin....no time to mess with the shirt and joined the group with seconds to spare before we were sent off................................................. Nah, the roads were fine, no traffic. Plenty of parking, I casually walked to get my bib, walked back to the car got dressed, I didn't forget anything, I actually over packed...BORING

 Okay, we line up. I am maybe mid pack which is perfect for where I always finish a race mid pack dullsville. There is a new exciting phrase coined today by Lebow "Get some trails!" oof that was a dud Matt, good idea but that catch phrase has its own catch phrase "P.U."

 Were off, I start out slowwwww i'm playing it safe early on for a few reasons. First, my left heel that I smashed into a rock last Saturday feels fine now but I'm thinking about the later miles and I want it just as strong then. Second, I know the course, it's a deceiving incline for the first few miles so I don't want to over do it to soon, "blow my wad" as they so eloquently say. Lastly, I am a slow runner and a notoriously slow starter this is why I really dislike 5k's they are all about starting out fast and hard and staying there. I am not good at that.

 As annoying as I was that I was getting passed, a lot I knew I was doing the right thing by chillin'. My heel began to protest and it recruited my left calf to do the same, not enough to worry me but enough for me to feel it. There's something about the first couple of miles of this course that I hate running on but as soon as I cross over the stream I start to click into a rhythm, usually. Sometimes I need to cross the street but today was a stream day so by the time I got to the first street crossing I had a hunch I was going to enjoy today's race, and boy was I............? suspensful isn't it...

 Right! Yay! Sure shuffling over those slimy boards was scary as I had images of my foot slipping off and snapping clean off but that obviously didn't happen. What did happen though was me having to pee very badly, so as I was running up the white trail hill behind the nature Center I noticed that I was all by myself sooooo I did the bow legged run, I whipped it out, and I peed. I will spare you the steamy details but I was laughing out loud as I did my own trail marking. My next problem was that I was overheating, 3 miles in and I was burning up so I pulled off my singlet and my long sleeve shirt tied it around my waist and threw the singlet back on. At the first aid station I threw the long sleeve down and told the volunteer that I will pick it up on the way back and that "It had better be there, got it sister!!!" then I tore off up the trail feeling the beautiful, cool, foggy/misty air on my skin. It was like I was in a Oil of Oley commercial. My long locks flowing, baby deer and bunnies playing along the side of the trail.

 Removing that shirt was a terrific idea, I liken it to a big engine that was being choked of air and finally that has a steady stream of cool or even cold air running over it. Keep it cool, keep it classy. There is a small stretch of single track right after the uphill next to the Nature Center that is ever so slightly down hill. It leads you to the multi use trail, this little stretch is one of my favorites. It's flat as in very few roots and rocks which allows you to open it up a bit. Today it was gorgeous on this section, the fog flowing through the trees and the overcast skies all meshed together perfectly.

 On to the multi use trail, a perfect spot to really open it up and make up some time. Not so much for me today though, even though my heel wasn't in any pain it wasn't happy when I tried to push it so I kept at a good pace figuring that if this is where I can run without hurting my heel than so be it. More amazing scenery along the multi-use trail but the next section on the course is the most technical and had the highest possibility of slippage so I prepared myself.
 Two left turns later and I was headed to the cliff, this is the section of trail the runs above St. Andrews Church it is very technical, has a steep angle to it, and today it was slippery to boot. The slippey condition was do to the.......rain obviously it was from yesterdays rain what else could it be. I made it through but the sideways shuffle wreaked havoc on my heel, and it started to feel ouchy, I believe that is a technical term. Coming off of this cliff and running towards the golf course is about the halfway point I believe so i am going to stop this one here and start anew later. It gets a lot funnier later I promise.