Brat & Brew – Friday night in Protivin

I was ready for the Brat & Brew 5k  Friday night in Protivin. I mean I went out running these past couple of weeks and everything that I knew was that I wanted to get my time for this 5k under 30 minutes. So on the way to Protivin, I was trying to mentally get ready. I mean honestly, how hard can it be to shave off a couple of minutes right? So like I said I was trying to psych myself into thinking that I can do this. Last year Kyle ran with me and it was my first 5k and I didn’t do too bad. But this year ? Man I want to get under 30 minutes. Once I got signed in and my tickets for beer and brats that come with the registration, I have my I pod ready to go. And what music did I choose for tonight? Well Johnny Cash of course! How can you not be motivated when you hear ‘Ring of Fire’ right? So I’m getting anxious and also a little sick to my stomach worrying that it’s not going to go as well as I hoped. I’m thinking to myself that I should join the other 75% of the people who are all drinking before the run, but then … no I want to be ready. I had a small bowl of salted wheat pasta before I left and I didn’t want to chance the run by having anything not healthy. Now we’re getting lined up and listening to the Star Spangled banner being sang. After I hear the word “Brave” I turn on my I pod and …. what? What’s the matter with the screen? It’s all weird and ahhhhhh! OK, I told myself calm down. It’s not the end of the world. I finally could figure out where Johnny’s music was and set the timer for 30 minutes. And we’re off. Things were going pretty good and I was able to keep up. Then I hear “10 minutes” in my ears. Well I wasn’t too far from the 1 mile marker and I felt that I was still in the game. Then when I got to around the 2 mile marker I started to slow down. And at the 2 1/2 mile marker I could just catch out of the corner of my eye something. Yup, it was the dreaded stroller. Now I don’t know many of the rules of 5k’s but I do know this one. You should NEVER.. and I mean NEVER get passed by someone pushing a stroller with a baby inside. So I tried to suck it up and keep thinking 30 minutes.. 30 minutes… but just as I was trying to keep up with the stroller the guy who was running with his wife and baby looked at me and said hello. OK, now I’m not sure just exactly what I said or did, but I’m thinking I might have gave kind of a snotty face back to them. Yup, pretty sure on that.  Now we’re going up the last hill and going to turn the corner. I’m just trying not to puke and then in my ear I hear “Congratulations, you reached your goal of 30 minutes”  Well I did set it for 30 minutes, but I also wanted to have the 30 minutes voice when I was done, not when I was a half of a block away! So did I make the time that I set? No. It was a complete failure. I clocked in at 34:17 minutes. I spent the remaining of the night being so disappointed in myself and now I’ve got another 5k next week to try to make my goal all over again. I’ve also been thinking on what I could have done different and do you know that the one thing that I should have done? I’m thinking that I should have been with the rest of the group and had my ‘brew’ before the race! 🙂