Running Report: Today I Learned A Valuable Lesson About Kegal Exercises

Mama ran a half today.  It was good.  I kept up the training after my last half-marathon, and decided to take the running a little more seriously the past five or so weeks.  By no coincidence, this timing correlated with the "cooler" metro DC temperatures.  The summer is just so dang hot and humid, I CANNOT get the training going very well June through August.   There is a fairly significant running community around here.  In the spring and fall, one has their choice of more than a half a dozen area road races, ranging in distance from a 5k to marathon.  On weekends, the trails and sidewalks are packed with runners preparing for their respective races, and I always tell myself, if these guys can do it, so can I.  But you know what?  I can't.  Not really.  Not in summer.  I hate every step in that icky, sticky humidity.  Nonetheless, I plodded along, and when the temperature dropped to 85 degrees in September, I welcomed it with some extra mileage and intensity. 

I did everything right.  I ate extra healthy this past week, including a pasta and veggie early dinner yesterday.  I jogged an easy three miles with a couple 100 meter strides, and hydrated all day.  I went to bed at a decent time, and woke up early enough to eat a little breakfast and get the blood pumping.  Drinking my coffee this morning, I felt pretty good.  I was aiming to run under 1:50; not my best ever, but I thought reasonable.  My plan was to use this race as a means to gauge a goal time for a spring marathon.  Mark dropped me off at the start, and I immediately made a beeline for the port-a-pots, and joined a long line of runners also waiting to empty the tank, so to speak.  Then it was time to head to the the starting line.  As the national anthem was sung, I realized that I again had to pee.  I think this happens to a lot of people.  When you're running have you ever noticed that once you get going, the initial urge to pee goes away?  I don't know where the pee goes.  Maybe you sweat it out.  Maybe it recirculates back into your kidneys.  I dunno, but it often goes away.  Or at least, it used to go away.  Post-pregnancy, this phenomonen has occured less and less.  Nonetheless, I was hoping for the magic pee removal this time, because I definitely didn't have time to go.

Well, as you've probably guessed by now, there was no such luck.  By the time I reached the first set of on-course port-a-pots 2.5 miles in, I had already peed a little (a lot) in my pants.  If you haven't had a baby, you probably think this is gross.  I know I certainly would.  But if you have had a baby, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  And if you are going to have a baby, this is just a little nugget to look forward to.  A little bit of bouncing causes a leak in the dam, and a lot of bouncing, especially combined with a raging river, really strains the flood gates.  Luckily, they hadn't completely broken, so I stopped to potty as soon as I could.  At one of three stalls.  Three.  Thousands of runners, the first potty stop, and there were three stalls.  Of course, I had to wait in a line. 

After taking care of business, I continued on course.  My running watchhad paused after I stopped moving and waited in line, but picked back up once I was back on pace.  The finish was tough and into the wind, but my unofficial time via Garmin watchwas 1:48:16.  My second best!  But, I knew I had lost some valuable time in line for the potty, and as it turns out, the diversion cost me more than three and a half minutes.  So, my official time was not as good as I had hoped, but I can say with certainty that running workouts won't be the only exercises I do as I prepare for my next race.

One of the few circumstances where it is acceptable to be drinking a beer before 9:30 AM