{"id":5393,"date":"2011-02-26T16:35:53","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T22:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=5393"},"modified":"2011-02-26T16:35:55","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T22:35:55","slug":"runner-fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/?p=5393","title":{"rendered":"Runner Fog"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning my alarm went off at 4:45am, the time I normally start sending some of my flight releases at work. I should have been a zombie. Good sleep eluded me, as it often does when something forces me to arise at the time normal people do. But this was race day. Adrenaline covers a multitude of complaints.<\/p>\n

I left in the dark, my family comfortable and warm in their beds. I arrived in the dark as well, joining thousands of others just as crazy. After picking up my bib, chip timer, and swag, I shuffled to the back of the giant corral to await the starting horn with the rest of the herd. In all, 3691 runners showed up early for the Cowtown 10k<\/a>, huddling together in the morning cold. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is what 3000+ runners look like. See how far away the starting arch is?<\/em><\/p>\n

Soon we were off. Since I got stuck in the back with the walkers and slower runners (poor planning!), it took a while to break free and reach my target pace. But soon I found myself running through the park with my pace group. The sun had emerged. Shallow fog hung like glowing ghosts over the grassy hills. I looked ahead and saw dozens of tiny breath clouds emerging from the runners, also glowing in the morning sun. I found the sight quite beautiful. We were a pack of wolves on a morning hunt. Our prey was the finish line. And endless boxes of free bananas.<\/p>\n

I had three goals for the race. In order of priority and difficulty, they were:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cross the finish line under my own power<\/li>\n
  2. Set a personal record (PR) for this distance<\/li>\n
  3. Break 50 minutes<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I succeeded in the first two, and barely missed the third, finishing in 50:01. Close enough, says I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This morning my alarm went off at 4:45am, the time I normally start sending some of my flight releases at work. I should have been a zombie. Good sleep eluded me, as it often does when something forces me to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5393"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5422,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions\/5422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andybox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}