My alarm went off at 4:25 am. I was not pleased. I hadn't slept well at all. In fact I don't think I had slept at all that night. I was waking up this early to drive my sister to BWI. Charm City, Ball so Hard. It wasn't that long of a drive, but the fact that I had to wake up that early didn't make it all that appealing. I ended up eating a quite bit of cereal and then drove over to my sister's apartment. I called her up to let her know I was outside her place and then waited for her. A girl with frilly blond hair comes out of the apartment. OH MY GOD WHAT DID MY SISTER DO TO HER HAIR!!!??? IT LOOKS SO BAD!!!! LIKE REALLY WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT YOURSELF???!!! And then this girl smoked a cigarette and then I realized that this was one of my sister's roommate. Of course then I was thinking who is up at 5am and smoking a cig? I ended up driving my sister to the airport. No traffic. No problems.
Of course on the way back to DC it started to pour. A storm in DC, I guess the power will be out for a week (cue Pepco not fixing the power outages but still charging people for service when they didn't have power). The rain stopped raining as I got to my apartment, and I was able to get a nice four mile run in. I decided to run on 16th street because I figured that the parts of Piney Branch that I was going to run on were going to be muddy. I ended up feeling really good and scared some women when I ran by them right outside a Howard U dorm. I got back to my apartment and ate a little bit of breakfast. Then it was time to get a little bit of studying in.
That's right I was taking a test today at 10:45. Had I really studied as hard as I could. Well not that much. But I figured that I could do a well enough job. When I was studying I got distracted. And what distracted me was this clip of The Trip where Steve Coogan did a Michael Caine impersonation.
Every time that I watch it I can't stop but enjoy it and get a chuckle out of it. SHE WAS ONLY SIXTEEN! WHEN HE GETS LOUD HE GETS VERY LOUD INDEED! Then I thought about this spoof trailer on SNL that parodied British gangster movies. That really chuckled my funny phone. It combines all the aspects from the genre and the accents where you can't understand what they are saying. And include the blues music that really makes no sense when you think about it. If I had to recommend a great British gangster movie that has flown under the radar I would say Layer Cake.
And that's what happens. I ended up getting distracted by this and didn't really get that much studying in. I ended up getting to Howard to take the test. I had forgotten to print out my admission ticket. Would they not let me take the test? How could I somehow explain that I didn't have it in a way where I kinda gave the I don't know I thought I had it expression? So when I went to the women to check in I told her I didn't have an admission ticket, she looked slightly annoyed, and after a couple minutes of not finding my name I was in ready to take the test.
And this is why I like taking the computer version of these tests. It was just like the SAT's all over again. The filling out of the answer sheet. Filling in the bubbles. My last name letters never goes down all the way and the bubbles don't look that cool. After getting further explanations about stuff that I wasted more time, I took my test. I bought a study book to get ready for the test. It said that the test would be 16 multiple choice questions and four short answer questions. So imagine my surprise when I opened up my test booklet and say that there were four short answer questions, but SEVENTY MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS. Oh...oh...this can't be good. But I quickly brushed it off. I started with the last question (is this normal-do people start at the back and work their way to the front?). Now during multiple choice questions I always get worried when I get the same letter answer in a row. WHAT FIVE B'S. OH THAT'S NOT GOOD. I haven't seen a C in a while. That's what I was thinking. I finished the test with about thirty minutes left. I thought maybe I could turn it in and then leave. Nope I had to sit there and wait. AHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE!
At 1:30 we were allowed to leave and I walked back to my apartment. I stopped at Subway for some lunch. At this point I was hungry. I just wanted my footlong meatball sub. The guy at Subway was rather old and was taking his time. Just give me ten meatballs and get them on quick. I ended up eating around 2 and then took a nap. It was hard to take a nap, but I was able to get one in. I ended up waking up around 4:45 in a groggy mode. I started to watch Batman Begins.
As I was walking back to my apartment it was spitting rain, hard enough to get the umbrella some use. It also was somewhat chilly, not that cold, but in the 60s. I was thinking if this is how the weather is going to be like when I run, it's going to be a good thing. Also I had a bunch of confidence from my time at the test. B-MAC HAS HIS MOJO BACK.
So imagine my surprise when I went to fill up my car with gas around 6:30 and it was humid. Well this isn't that great. I ended up getting to Rockville around 7:10 and parked in the metro lot. I walked to get my packet. I have to say the town of Rockville is pretty nice and the way this area was set out was really nice. This was the town square and I guess they imagined it would be something like you could see in Italy, albeit with a lot more commercialism, but still it was very nice (thinks about spending thousand of dollars to go to Europe or spending ten of dollars in Maryland). I got my packet and went back to my car to do a warm up. At this point it was still spitting rain and it was at this point where I had to think back to the last time I ran a race where it was raining. Dilworth Jubilee 2006? I think that might have been it. That race went really well so that was another positive sign. I did the warm up and passed some elite African runners who were in full sweatpants, long sleeve shirts. Well what did I do with my long sleeve TrySports shirt? Rolled it down. I did notice that the humidity was not that pleasant. It was there and it was really humid. The temperature had climbed up to the 70s. It wasn't bad, it wasn't sticky, but it was there. I ran the first two miles of the course and knew that this was a hilly section of the course.
I did my warm up and tried to go to the bathroom, but no real success. I hope this isn't like Vermont. I got my stuff ready for the bag check and was ready to go. I tried to go to the bathroom again and no luck, although with my super power skill of being able to locate any porta-johns, I was able to find one in a construction site that was about 50 feet away from where the massive lines were. I had to fight my way to get near the start line and that's when I ran into this guy I meet at the Father's Day 8k. I have to say he reminds me of Billy Shue, but not quite. So for this race recap I'll call him the Poor Man's Billy Shue (PMBS). We talked a little before the race. I was not that anxious at all like I was last year. I was worried that I was about ten people deep, but then came up with a plan to catch the people who went out fast later on in the race. I knew not to go ducking in between people to move up. I did that last year in the first mile and ran out of gas. So when the start went out we had to wait maybe five to eight seconds to pass the start line. And...it...was...a...mad...dash. I just keeping it cool and was very relaxed. Lately I have come to the realization that wearing watches is not really working for me. Maybe it's all the undue stress or the fact that I look at it all the time or rely to much on it, whatever I was getting stressed out and my goal for now on was to get as relaxed as I can. Be as calm and cool when racing. To really go out there and have a great time and not worry that much. Since the race started around 8:45 it was dark and it was raining barely.
First mile split was 5:40, so I was figuring that I ran anywhere from 5:32-35. That wasn't to bad. I was really moving on the next mile. This had a lot of hills on it. I was able to move up. I had no idea where PMBS was but knew he was way ahead of me. I fact he kinda kicked my ass in the race. The second mile I really didn't throw any surges here, I was still waiting to make a move and catch people that were dying. The second mile was around 5:34 (This is all from remembering the splits on the clock so they may not be that accurate). The the third mile went back where we ran on the first mile and then turned off into a community college parking lot. The third mile was my fastest with a 5:30 and I was hurting at this point, but I was still fighting. I saw the clock and for a second I thought it was 15 and I was like that's not so bad at all, but it was a 16, oh ok that makes more sense. The fourth mile had a lot of turns which disrupted the rhythm that I was in. Now I'm a laid back guy, almost to a fault, but when I get fired up it's usually when I run, so on this mile I was battling some guys and we were going back and forth and I passed them and was feeling good about that. I felt that I was faster than them. But then they started to hang off me. Letting me do the pace. SERIOUSLY? I was about to ask them if they wanted me to do all the work for them or were they going to man up and pass me. This lasted for some time and finally I got fed up and threw in a surge. Who went with me? NOBODY. Really where were the balls on these guys. Someone runs away from you and you let them. Fourth mile was slow it was about 5:40.
Now comes the fun part. A straight shot back to the finish. Flat. I was running with a women. I AIN'T LOSING TO A GURL. So I was picking it up and she was right with me. Oh man I can't shake her. It took me about a half mile to drop her. I then saw that I could catch the next women and two guys. Let's go for it. I caught this group and passed the women. I could see the finish line and cranked the B-Mac kick. I was going for it. The shoelaces were coming untied. The one of the guys started to kick me and he passed me. Argh! I finished under 28 minutes, but with my net time it was close to 27:54. My average split was 5:35, so I was hitting that for almost every mile. So in a way it was better than what I did a month ago, but I'm still a long way from where I need to be.
After the race I was soaked. Was it sweat? Was it rain? I'm not sure. Probably both. I felt that I ran hard, but know that I can get back and that the B-Mac Ekg running chart is no on the upswing and not on the downside. I did a cool down with PMBS and he started to talk about the Dark Knight Rises I HAVEN'T SEEN IT NO SPOILERS. We did about two miles and then parted ways. Overall it wasn't that bad and the mileage for the week was around 95 or 96 I'm not sure.
In a way I feel good and have the motivation again to run fast. Maybe it was shaving the beard. No that had to be it. Say goodbye to that bushel of a beard. The confidence is back and I have my mojo. I forgot to put this in the massive Burlington Recap, but one reason that I like to do races is all the cool places that you get to go to. I mean I get to do something that I like and I get to go to places that are cool and you see so many things.
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