Happy New Year -- a little ol' race report

Happy 2012! I woke up New Year's Day not in a fog from too many libations but from little kids who cry out in the night. About 3 (4? who knows) I heard the little toddler man crying out. I drowsily headed downstairs and promptly slid down the very hard, unpadded oak stairs leading to the main floor. My butt-bone aches so badly. I did whatever it is I do to the kids in the middle of the night and went back up. Repeat, minus the falling down the stairs, a few more times.

This is after a really lousy, unsuccessful attempt to stay up until midnight. Before we had our little knee-knockers NYE was a big, dress-up deal for us. I loved all the hoopla. I even had a black sequined skirt. Now, I am a slug but my husband wants to have something special each NYE. With little kids I'm lucky to stay up until 10. Anyway, by 10 p.m. I was dying. Then we spent a bunch of time discussing how tired we are -- obviously, he wanted to stay up until midnight and I did not, so I win the "most tired" award. (Competition is good for marriage, right? Haha. ) I finally got to get into bed around 11:30 and at midnight he woke me up to tell me it was midnight. I love that he tries to make it special, but oh man, I will take a full night's sleep over anything these days. He would take a non-grumpy wife over anything these days, I'm sure!

So I got 5 1/2 hours of interrupted sleep and a stair tumble to prepare for my 5k New Year's Day morning. This is a recurring theme in my post-partum races. Sleep well? Hydrate? Bahahahahaha. That's hilarious. That is obviously for cupcakes, not running mamas.

The forecast for for snow/rain mix and 50 mph winds and the race is located on the lakefront. Awesome! The prediction suited my mood, complete with dark clouds overhead. I joined two of my girlfriends, one of whom met a new guy the morning of NYE and the other one who had just split from her boyfriend. The distraction was helpful as we exchanged NYE's stories.

We lined up to start the race. I wondered if I was the only non-hungover person and fantasized about PR'ing and placing in the top 3 in my age group (women 40-44). I've only placed once, in a small race in Omaha a couple of years ago. That's a lot tougher to do in Chicago, where there are just a lot of fast runners. Faster than me, anyway.

And we were off! I had some, er, raginess to propel me since I was so grumpy that morning. Not a quarter mile into the race, I noticed my right shoe was untied. Dork. Stop and tied it and sprinted back into the throng of runners, trying to spot my friends, huffing and puffing. A few minutes later my left shoe was untied. What am I, five years old? Now I was seriously pissed. Double dork. OK, shoe is tied and I'm booking. My butt bone is aching but I was trying to ignore it. Stupid stairs.

I crossed the first mile marker at 9:45 (from race start time, not when I crossed the start line) which is pretty good. I'm guessing I managed a 9 minute-mile-ish pace that first mile, which is not so bad considering I had to stop twice. The second mile I crossed at 18:30-ish, so a little under a 9 mm. Not bad. When I hit the third mile mark I see the clock at 27 minutes and change and I'm like, oh ****!! My PR is 27:01 and I'm in range! Darn it, why wasn't I pushing harder? I'm so darn tired but I ran as hard as I could that last 0.1 mile and crossed the finish before the clock can turn to 28 minutes. And did the lean-against-the-tree-thing and tried not to throw up. I always feel awful when I cross the finish line.

My chip time wound up being 27:09, just 8 seconds slower than my best 5k time -- 9th place out of 55 in my age group. Holy crap, I could have PR'ed if I hadn't had to tie my shoes. Twice. Oh man, I was annoyed but also elated, too. I am capable of running 3.1 miles under 27 minutes! In the big scheme of things that is not particularly fast -- respectable, but my teenager could run a 5k in well under 20 minutes back when he was doing cross country in high school -- but it is an awesome time for this 43-year-old mama.

The race held an after-party at a local bar. I usually rush home after races but I decided to grab a beer with one of the friends who also ran the race. She and my other friend totally stroked my ego when they told me that during the race I came flying past them post-shoe-tying and didn't see them. I was feeling all badass, for sure.

I am not much of a beer drinker. But when the race offers one free post-race beer, why not? The bartender told me the free beer was Miller Lite, to which I responded that there's no way I can drink that crap. I ordered a Sierra Nevada and he gave it to me for free anyway. Happy New Year's to this mama! Sometimes a good beer after a run tastes sooo good. Later that afternoon my husband encouraged me to take a nap and handled the kiddies. Lucky running mama!

Next up: half marathon Jan. 28.

M