Women Run the Cities (10 Mile) and get chased by dogs

Remember a few days ago when I said I loved fall, well I changed my mind! So far we've had two days in a row of overnight frost and cold mornings. I have forgotten all about this after the extreme heat all summer. It was such a shock to be preparing for a race when it was expected to be 34F at the start. After multiple times of rethinking my outfit, I finally decided on capris, wool socks, short sleeve shirt, arm warmers, jacket, mittens and headband. Was it a good choice? Yes and no. As per my usual cold weather runs my fingers were numb, ugh. My legs were fine but I overdid the top half.

 

I met up with a couple friends before the start and did my share of complaining about the weather, but this was short lived as we were off and running. My goal was for a negative split and ideally a sub 1:10 race. The short version: neither happened, instead things I had never planned on occurred..

The race began fine, I pushed through the early hills focusing on keeping a comfortable pace and not going out too fast. I hit Mile 5 at 35:30 so not too much time to make up, I could do this. About this time there was a turn around and much to my surprise I see a car coming straight towards me (on a closed course!), I guess people can't read the signs or see the road blocks. Luckily a volunteer jumped in the way and stopped it.

The next couple miles brought the hills I was dreading and some strange racing. My hamstring is great on flat ground or taking it easy up hills, but racing up hills tends to piss it off big time, so a hilly course like this was not doing good for me.

I kept pushing as much as I could and then it started Mile 6 a spectator's dog ran out on the course and started chasing me! Well that has never happened in a race. I was caught off guard and trying not to trip or step on the little dog which was quickly gathered up and removed by it's owner. But this was not the only dog instance. After a stop at Mile 7 to tie my shoe (that has never happened in a race either), what a waste of time it takes forever to tie with numb fingers, it happened again. Mile 8 and another dog chasing a ball ran right into me. Seriously, what is happening?!

Now with about 1.5 miles to go I am in with the 5K runners and try to push through the rest, I get cheers from other runners including a friend and my mom. 

Go Mom! Look what she can do at 62 years old.

At this point another runner catches to tell me she has been chasing me most of the race, this only makes me run harder. I know my goals are out of reach, somewhat out of my control) and I finish 1:13:19 with disappointment in the race I just had and my overall racing this year so far. I was so cold after the post-run sweat took over so we headed for coffee and left. I never even stopped to look at results so I was shocked when a friend posted on Facebook the I had gotten 2nd in my age group, what?! Sure enough even with everything I was second.

Now to focus on getting this hamstring good in 2 weeks and relaxing while I taper. After Twin Cities Marathon I need to refocus my training, cut back on running and work on strength, stability and flexibility. This will also begin my new schedule where I will add in much more swimming, biking and anything else. How do you deal with a bad race(s)? What are you favorite non-running cardio activities?