Butte to Butte
Last Wednesday, 4th of July and a day off of work for me, I woke up @ 530 am in anticipation of the infamous 10k Butte to Butte run I was entered in. The race starts at Spencer's Butte, goes uphill for a mile or so and then downhill and becomes flat for the remaining 5+ miles to Skinner's Butte.
Thinking I had all the time in the world, I didn't get myself to the shuttle @ 5th St Market until 7:25am. Well, guess what? The line doubled back and looped halfway around the block. Just my luck. By the time I got on a lovely LTD bus it was 8am (start time). And by the time we bumped and bounced our way to 43rd and Donald it was about 8:20am and I had to pee like a race horse. Most of the participants on my bus were walkers who not only had a later start time, but walked just 4.5 miles bypassing the glorious hill. The rest of them ran like hell frantic that they had missed the start gun.
I however, HAD to pee. So, I got in line and waited, did my thing, and started running. Luckily, I had my handy dandy Garmin 305 on so I knew how fast I was going, my heart rate, my overall time, and much more than I ever need to know. The first mile or so was much less painful than I had expected and actually enjoyable with the numerous "good luck" and "way to go runners!" shouts from friendly homeowners, even though I was clearly the only runner around. Soon after, I hit the walkers and spent the next several miles dodging numerous walkers, baby strollers and just plain unexperienced racers. All in all, it's a lot of fun to run in your own city, even if your 52 min race time gets calculated as 1:02 due to a minor error in judgement.
Thinking I had all the time in the world, I didn't get myself to the shuttle @ 5th St Market until 7:25am. Well, guess what? The line doubled back and looped halfway around the block. Just my luck. By the time I got on a lovely LTD bus it was 8am (start time). And by the time we bumped and bounced our way to 43rd and Donald it was about 8:20am and I had to pee like a race horse. Most of the participants on my bus were walkers who not only had a later start time, but walked just 4.5 miles bypassing the glorious hill. The rest of them ran like hell frantic that they had missed the start gun.
I however, HAD to pee. So, I got in line and waited, did my thing, and started running. Luckily, I had my handy dandy Garmin 305 on so I knew how fast I was going, my heart rate, my overall time, and much more than I ever need to know. The first mile or so was much less painful than I had expected and actually enjoyable with the numerous "good luck" and "way to go runners!" shouts from friendly homeowners, even though I was clearly the only runner around. Soon after, I hit the walkers and spent the next several miles dodging numerous walkers, baby strollers and just plain unexperienced racers. All in all, it's a lot of fun to run in your own city, even if your 52 min race time gets calculated as 1:02 due to a minor error in judgement.
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