Dwennimmen Gives You Wings!

I had an accomplishment this weekend that, as one who could (under the circumstances) be considered an underachiever, I am quite proud of. You see, several months ago I signed up to run the Get in Gear 10k, scheduled for April 25. With all that time to train, you would think I would have been ready to rock come start time on Saturday.

Not so much. I believe I ran a total of two times in as many months. That's where the underachiever part comes into play. However, given the ridiculous amounts of soccer I played this winter, I figured I would probably be okay anyway. So here's how it panned out...

I got to the start line, and heard nature's call--softly, from a distance. I looked over to the horizon--porta potties as far as eye could see. Bliss. Then I looked past the porta potties to the throng of people waiting patiently for an open outhouse. Ugh. There must have been 200 people standing around, legs crossed. With 10 minutes to go before the race started, I decided to ignore nature's call and give the race a go.

Nature is a fickle friend, however, and 1.5 miles into the 6.2 mile run, she was screaming and hollaring obscenities at me, all patience and subtlety cast aside. So when I spotted a lone porta potty just off the road on a path along the Mississippi river, I decided to stop. Evidently, I wasn't the only person with this idea. So I waited patiently at the back of the line, hopping from one foot to the other, watching the minutes tick away on my watch... one... two... five... ten...

More than 10 minutes later, I finally made it through the line, got my business taken care of, and was back on the path to Getting in Gear. The time wasted in line must have lit a fire under my bottom, and I kicked it into high gear. My average pace runs right around a 10 minute mile. The first mile out of the porta potty, I ran a 9:30. My next mile, the toughest mile on the course with a large uphill portion, I had a 9:15 split. I slowed down a little bit from there, but ran at under a 10 minute mile pace through the end of the race.

To make a long story short, I crossed the finish line at 1:08:52. In and of itself, this is one of the worst 10k times I have ever posted. However, if you factor in the ten plus minutes spent in the porta potty line, I finished in under an hour--a personal best for me. The lesson I'm taking from this experience is that wasting time in line for the bathroom makes me run faster.

Woot! Post Dwennimmen PB. Further evidence that my tattoo is magical.