Saturday, August 23, 2008

I got drunk texted by Barack Obama

Okay, not really.

But you guys? When I sign up for text alerts about who you are choosing for your VP, do you really text me at 2:30 in the morning?

Do you know who texts at 2:30 in the morning? Drunk people.

After having gone to bed at 10 so that I could arise at 5am for the Leapfrog run this morning, imagine my surprise when my phone went off in the middle of the night. After realizing that if there had been some family emergency, my parents would call, not text, I rolled over to go back to bed without looking at my phone.

But then my curiosity got the better of me. What if some boy was drunkenly texting me in the middle of the night?

But no.

It was just Barack.

Anyway, a mere 2.5 hours later I rolled out of bed to get ready to go. As I was finishing my breakfast of strawberry shortcake (breakfast of champions!), Kori came and picked me up and we headed down to Dallas Center.

When we got to the race, we scoped out the competition. There were people warming up. Who warms up? Overachievers! That's who! And we noticed a distressing number of teenage girls who looked like cross-country runners, who unfortunately would be in our age group for this race (combined age under 80). And there were huge ass trophies that we drooled over wistfully but which we didn't have any chance at.

We decided that Kori would run first and I would bike, so I got myself lined up near the front and quite suddenly they started the race. Our plan was to do 1.1 mile intervals. That seems random, but that way we each had six intervals.

The race was loads of fun. My lack of endurance right now totally showed though - look at these splits:

1: 9:36 min/mi
2: 9:45 min/mi
3: 8:38 min/mi
4: 9:39 min/mi
5: 10:24 min/mi
6: 10:39 min/mi

Rather than gradual decline, it is like I ran smack into a wall after the fourth interval. Which considering I have done one run over 4 miles since mid-July and that was a 6 mile "long" run, which was done in a low heart rate zone, is not all that surprising.

We came in at 1:25, which was 12 minutes slower than the winner in our group - Kori and I each would have to cut a minute off our intervals to catch up to that (so not gonna happen!). The overall winners came in at 1:06 - those are some speedy peeps! The woman in the winning coed team (who came in about that time as well) has won the Des Moines Marathon and was in the Olympic trials for the marathon, so I'm glad we didn't have to compete with them.

It was totally good times though! We might have to experiment with the half-mile interval next year though - that was what the winners in our category did. Just still not sure the extra bike exchange time is worth it though...

Tomorrow, a seven mile long run. Oh yeah, I am totally going to be ready for a half-marathon in four weeks.

One I seriously almost bailed on when I went to buy plane tickets and they were $500 from DSM to Philly. $500!!! But then I clicked the "Show nearby airports" on Kayak and I got a ticket for $240 flying into Allentown. Phew. Allentown is a little over an hour from Philly, but I got a rental car for $70 for the whole weekend, so total airplane score!

And all still on Northwest - I'm on track for upgrade to elite status there this year, which means I get to check luggage for free and free upgrades to first class when available. Best part about first class? (Well besides the free food and drinks and the bigger seats and more leg room) No kids! I seriously better not have kids or the karma that will be visited upon me after the evil stares I have given many families on planes will not be pretty.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Ooooh! Strawberry shortcake! Note that I always focus on the salient details in a post.

Speaking of which, you know, I've seen that wall from time to time in the pool. It gets around as much as a drunken presidential candidate! ;-)

Oh, and good work on the relay.

Alysha said...

"But no.

It was just Barack."

I love it; excellent post.

Anonymous said...

Good job on the running...enjoy your long run tomorrown. You will be so ready for the half mary!

Anonymous said...

Nice job on the race!
And wasn't the text nice - even though I'm not sure about the pick

Joe said...

how do you know barack wasn't drunk texting you? maybe in a fit of drunkenness, he decided you needed to know before anyone else, and sent you the message personally!

also, first class flying is awesome. i am flying first class to chicago for the marathon. that's how i roll.

Al Dimond said...

That race reminds me of one of the great late-summer traditions of York Cross Country that I never got to do because I was always either too slow or too injured by that time (in the summer we ran 90-100 mile weeks, which for me was disastrous): the 2-man, 10-mile relay.

No bikes involved, just set teams, go to the track, and run a 2-man relay for 10 miles. The distance of each leg was fixed at a quarter-mile, so it was sort of a more fun way to run 20 quarters (20 was something of a break; usually we ran 25).

ButterPeanut said...

the mental image of Obama drunk texting Danielle in Iowa really made my day.

peter said...

That's too funny about the 2:30 am text. People don't text me b/c they know I won't ever read it or know it's there. Once my phone went off four times at 3 am and I picked it up each time and tried to answer it (no one was there). Months later a friend showed me four text messages in the inbox (who knew?) of my cellphone, from an excited new Dad I know saying each time--It's a girl!

Duane said...

Good race! But, ah, Republicans would wait till at least 9 am to test :-)

Nitmos said...

Barack is so needy. He's always waking me up in the middle of the night for campaign advice. Thanks, Barack, for ruining your race.

Steve Stenzel said...

Ha! I WISH you would have been drunk texted.

And the race sounded fun!! Nice job you two!!

Rainmaker said...

Hilarious post!

And airline status rocks...life is so much better after it.

Oly said...

your an elite in my mind and I may drunk text you soon. true! not at two though.

Why?

Cause at two, drunk, I can't fill in the wurd vefacatan- DUH!

21stCenturyMom said...

sorry 'bout that trophey. Oh well. Sounds like the x-country girls didn't get it either, though.

Your splits look a lot like the run of my race yesterday. I was cookin' at the beginning and then WHAM - instant fade. We still made it across the finish line, though.