The morning of the race, we met at Grocery Outlet and then drove over to campus together in my car since I have a parking permit. We stopped at Dutch Brothers so Sarah could get coffee, and awesomely enough, finally spotted the elusive Jurassic Park jeep we had heard was around town! My friend Chloe spotted it first in a random driveway and took pics with it in the middle of the night. Being a huge JP fan I desperately wanted to find it, so I was thrilled find out our Dutch Brothers barista owned it! I asked if we could take pictures, and he was so excited someone had asked rather than just climb all over his car (what the?) that he said sure!
That was way fun!
This race was both awful and wonderful. I FINALLY met my PR goal of going sub-40. Seven months of working on it, and I finally did it! I think it really helped that the course had some good easy downhills, that it was a "home" town race, and that I have been doing the Couch to 5k a little again. (Only up through week 2 though, because you have to pay for it after that point!)
My biggest complaint about this race is that it was over 85 degrees at 8am, and there was NO WATER on the course. I was SO thirsty, and felt SO awful, and kept looking for water and there was none. I could not believe that an event as huge as the Eugene Marathon wouldn't have water on the course. There honestly, in my memory, was not a single other race we did this year that didn't have a water station of some kind.
I was feeling pretty horrific by the end of the race, getting dizzy, couldn't speak- I had not hydrated beforehand as I should have, and the lack of water totally through me off. I also had had a pretty salty breakfast which did not help matters. (AND a whole Salted Caramel Gu too)
I was ready to bite someone's head off by the end of the race but I just wanted water.
So You can imagine my raging anger when I sprinted into the finish (running an 8:31 minute mile the last .11) on the famous Hayward Field track at University of Oregon, only to find, AGAIN, no water at the finish. I started randomly babbling to people- "Water?! WATER?!" But they either could not understand me, or ignored me. (I know I looked awful.) We had to walk a good additional .2 standing in lines like cattle to get our swag bags- again, NO WATER. I was starting to cry at this point. Another .1 and we're in the finisher's corral. WHERE"S THE WATER?!
The super dumb runner's corral.
When Sarah found me, I was so pissed off and so sick I was shaking and basically staggering. We finally found the water and I literally had to lay down because I felt so awful. I was super proud of my time, but so angry something as basic as a water station had been over looked. Just because a race course is short does not mean water should be overlooked- particularly in July when it was 85 degrees! I got so sick, so fast, and not everyone on that course was fit- I'm certainly not and there were plenty more like me, or struggling more! Frankly, I think the lack of water was dangerous and reckless.
Oh, and the water they had? Tasted strongly of plastic. The pancakes we were supposed to get afterwards had also apparently been made with the same contaminated-tasting water because the flavor of plastic was STRONG in the pancakes. We threw them away after two bites.
Loud complaining aside, I finally met my goal! This was so exciting. And I am so proud, even if the race itself sucked.
After the race, I ran home, and cleaned like crazy because my friend Nicole and her family were coming to town from Utah for family pictures! So exciting!
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