The Devils Run

On Sunday I ran the Devils Chase 6.66 in Salem, MA. How appropriate to be running a Halloween race in Salem. We left early about 5:45 so we would be all set, bathrooms, numbers etc...We also had our friend Teri who was running her first race. We were so excited for her, for taking on a 6 mile race for her first race and for the fact that she was starting to love running as much as we all do. We were at the race by 7 am for an 8 am start time, but that was fine, we picked up our numbers went to the bathroom, ate and drank some water. We decided that we would try to run together, but whatever happened, would happen. I knew that I did not want to run to fast because I did not want to get hurt for the upcoming weekend. Finally, 8 am. It was a little chilly and my feet were starting to get cold in my fancy Halloween knee socks. Then an announcement comes...."We are going to wait until everyone is out of the bathrooms before we start." Seriously, that is just weird. I am all for being 5 minutes behind schedule, but we did not start until almost 8:30. Note...don't get into the bathroom lines if it is 5 minutes before the race. Anyhoo....off we went, very crowded start and then it opened up. The race had many out and backs, a little bit of off roading on rocks. ( I was not psyched about this due to the fact I am a perpetual ankle twister and was getting stressed.) There were no hills, an extremely flat race and it was kind of cool to run through Salem. I had never been there before. The only down was that it was not a 6.66 mile course, everyone's Garmin was registering 6.4 and the timing ankle bracelets (really ankle bracelets?) were not reading accurately. My time on my Garmin was 55 minutes which is where I expected to be at....not to fast and not to slow. Plus, I got to run with Lynn for the entire time so we did some chit chatting.

Teri did finish the race in 1:27 and she was so excited! We ran her in and I almost started crying, yes crying. I just felt so excited for her, how many times a week do we runners knock back a 6 mile route and not think anything of it. This was such a big deal for her. She was tired and she was slow, but she did it!

Finally, I am 5 days left of my taper. I am hating tapering. It is such a pain. My kids are home from school today and I just want to climb on the TM for like 2 hours. I know, I know...small thing to complain about, but I really need a good 4 miles a day or I go CRAZY! even my kids' know when I haven't run. Oh well, we are going on a nature walk with my MIL, wish me luck, maybe I will run a bit down the trail.....