Luke - 10

Bloomsday 2011: 41:45, 66th place.

I put off writing this until like two week later, so it will probably be less detailed than expected.

Was planning on taking the bus from my friend Ted's house in Spokane Valley, where I was staying, into town (they had a special shuttle running all morning) but when I woke up and showered and all that, he got up too and offered to drive me in. We stopped off at Fred Meyer first for me to grab a bagel and banana, since he had almost no food in his house. Got downtown and as he was about to drop me off, I realized I didn't have the chip thing for my shoe, which you of course have to have to get a time and all that. I freaked out a tiny bit (mostly swore a bunch) and told Ted he'd have to drive me back and forth again, and I resigned myself to going without warming up. Then a block or two before the freeway I found my chip in my bag. Haha. So he dropped me off with plenty of time to go. I warmed up on the street below the street it starts on...there were ~55,000 runners, so the start takes up about 6-7 blocks of one four-lane street. My warmup was running from the street that crosses the front of the start to the street that crosses the back of the start, and back, twice, and then running around a few more places. Found a honey bucket about 15 minutes before the start, then took off my socks and put my shoes back on, did a few strides, and headed to the start. I had to show my number each time I went near the start to show that I was elite-seeded and could enter from the front (if you're in a different section you have to enter from the back of your section, so when I was a kid I would get there like 90 minutes before the start and stand in the middle of the giant crowd for the whole time).

At the start, a guy was doing the national anthem when I got in. When he was done I went over and stripped for a high schooler. I mean I took off my warmups and gave them to one of the high school kids whose job it was to take the elite guys' stuff and put it in a bag and bring it to the finish line. Then I did some strides with the Kenyans and a couple Ethiopians, including my good friend Ezkyas Sisay. Didn't really feel great, but I wouldn't know how the day would go until I started running. Was one row back on the start line, with 55,000 people behind me.

At the gun the fast people took off in a hurry and I was at the back of the elite group pretty quick. Tried to settle into a rhythm, making sure I wasn't getting too excited and going too fast. First mile was fairly flat, with some downhill near the end, and I ran a 5:09. Slightly fast even though I was trying to slow myself down. Second mile had a bit of downhill at the start, then a short flat section, then started uphill, and I did not feel at all strong going up. 5:24 for that one. Third mile was pretty much all uphill...the elites ran about even splits the first two miles and then like 25 seconds slower the third mile...I ran a 5:52. It hurt. I didn't get a split on the fourth mile even though I saw the marker...I forgot to even look at my watch. Just after that there was a downhill, the course crossed a flat bridge, and then started up Doomsday Hill. I was pretty excited for that because of one of the things I had planned so as to keep the race fun. I've noticed I run better when I have fun racing, so if there's a chance to do something unique or whatever, I'll do it, like wearing the Flash outfit for that Halloween 10-miler, or the dress shirt for the 5k a few weeks ago, or just telling myself to look forward to DoughCo or beer after a run...anyway for Bloomsday I had looked up the bands playing along the course (there are like 35) to see if any were any good, and there was one that I really liked, a pop-punk band (Chris, you'd probably like em) from there in Spokane called Small Town Nation. I listened to their stuff on MySpace and bought their album on iTunes since I had a gift card left over from Christmas, and a couple days before the race I sent them a message on MySpace saying that I'd give them the rock sign as I passed, and that I'd definitely be the first person to do that since I'm fast. I said I hoped they were playing one of my two favorite songs of theirs, and I told them I was wearing a red singlet so they should look out for me at about 24 minutes into the race. I checked my Email the day before the race and hadn't gotten a response from them so I wasn't sure if they'd even gotten my message, but I was looking forward to hearing them playing anyway...they were playing at the corner just before Doomsday Hill, and I figured hearing some familiar tunes might help me get up a little more easily. As I crossed the bridge I heard a song I recognized, and I think I sped up a little, and then as I came up to them I gave them the rock sign and the lead singer/guitarist saw me, stopped playing/singing, and said "This is it, this is it!" The rest of the band stopped mid-song, and he counted off "1! 2! 3! 4!" to the drummer and they started playing one of the songs I had mentioned was my favorite. The song starts out just instrumental, and over that the lead singer shouted, "This is for you, [unintelligible] guy!" Probably like "MySpace guy" or "Red jersey guy". Anyway, I got extremely pumped and was smiling huge at that, and charged up the hill as they played for me. I must have passed like fifteen guys going up the hill, and then throughout the rest of the race whenever I was slowing down I thought about the guy stopping playing and saying "This is it!" and I'd smile and speed up. Hahaha, I'm a huge dork. Anyway the fifth mile marker was at the top of Doomsday, and I passed it with a 2-mile split of 11:22. Even though I was excited and feeling slightly better the rest of the race, I was still a hurtin' unit, and passed miles six and seven at 5:47 and 5:39. I could tell I wouldn't be anywhere near my goal of 39:low but just tried to keep pushing. 2:29 the last .46 (5:23 pace) and I was glad to be done.

I saw my old one-armed high school coach at the finish and talked to him briefly...he didn't recognize me at first because I was so short back then. A high schooler came up and handed me my bag of stuff from the start and then I headed through the area to the shirt pickup. Bloomsday does a very cool thing with the shirts...the design and color of the shirts are a big secret and you don't get one until and unless you finish. Every time I've run it I've hoped for a yellow shirt, which they haven't had since 1979...and this year they were yellow! Kind of a paler yellow than I'd hoped, but still cool, and a great design, as always. From there I headed straight to the bar, where I met Ted, who had my wallet, cell phone, and jeans. They had a sign on the door that said "We open at 10am", so we waited outside for a bit since it was not yet 9:50. At about 9:54 a guy walked up and went straight in, so we followed and there were actually a couple people in there already and a bunch of bartenders. Got a great seat and started in on drinking. By about 10:05 the place was packed, and after two beers for me and one for Ted we left, at about 10:15-10:20. We gave our seats to the guys standing behind us and they were super-excited because they were pretty much the best seats in the house. Went to another bar and I had a giant (32oz) plastic cup of beer and Ted had a regular-sized (12oz) plastic cup of beer. We left and walked to Ted's car, which was a 20-25 minute walk because there is of course no parking anywhere near the start/finish on Bloomsday morning. Drove back out to the valley and stopped by Fred Meyer again, this time for beer. Ted got a couple of his friends to come out in the middle of the day on a Sunday and we played ping-pong in his garage and I drank lots of PBR. At some point we went to a Boston's for pizza and I had a beer there too, then we headed back to Ted's place and played horseshoes while I drank more beer. Then his friends left and a different friend came over and the three of us went to a bar, where I didn't drink any beer. Haha, just kidding, I drank tons. We got back to Ted's place somewhere between 1am and 2am and passed out. The next day, believe it or not, I had a hangover--and after only 13+ straight hours of drinking...I'm such a lightweight.

Racewise, I of course wasn't too excited about my time being a couple minutes slow...I think I tapered too much; I never really felt sharp in the week or two leading up to the race. Next time I'll at least keep the mileage around 40 instead of down below 30.

Other than the time, a fun weekend. I'm glad I took the trip.

Steve is faster than Luke in all distances <=400m...but not really.