vomit and poop and racing...oh my!

Well, this weekend was an interesting one, for sure. Both of my boys came down with some type of stomach bug, and so from Thursday night to Saturday night they were both throwing up and had diarrhea. Why is it that kids are never sick during the day? I swear to you...my kids can be perfectly cheerful and playful all day long, but when midnight hits...they are suddenly violently ill. It makes for some really long days, since we are up all night cleaning them up, then up all day playing with our happy kids who are supposed to be sick but aren't. At one point I just wanted them to start feeling bad, just so we could sit and watch a movie or something. No such luck. At any rate, now everyone is on the mend (finally).

I also ran in the Frostbite Four race this weekend. This is the only winter race around, and so there are lots of runners who sign up for and run this race every year. This was my first time running this one, and it was not my best day.

First off, I was horribly sleep deprived, having spent Thursday and Friday nights up all night with sick babies. Hindsight being what it is, I probably should have just cancelled; but I think that by Saturday morning I was so ready to get out of the house for a few hours, I would have gladly left for a root canal, let alone a nice run!

Secondly, the race was not at all what I expected. Basically, we met at the High School, and then we were bussed four miles out and expected to run back to the school. I have never spent any time in Beresford, and so had no idea where I was for most of the race. Even better...the busses we were taken to the starting line in were so dirty that we couldn't even see out the windows for the drive. So we really had no idea where we were.

Although it was very warm that day (temps in the 30's), it was snowing very hard, and so it was both slippery and difficult to see. I was glad that I had my YakTrax on. I felt badly for a lot of the runners who didn't have them. They slipped all over the place for the first mile and a half or so.

Another thing that was odd was that there were no fans cheering us on. One thing that I love about racing is the energy of the crowd. Nothing shaves your mile times like running a race with lots of people telling you how great you're doing. There were no fans for this race. It was quiet. Eerily quiet. It should never be that quiet during a race.

One great thing about being bussed out to the starting line is that there is really no option but to finish, and so finish, I did. My official time was 32:54:00, although according to the postings, I am a man, and finished 12th in my age group. Not bad for a guy. If I had run as a girl that day, I would have finished 9th.

The next race on my plate is the St. Patty's Day Mile. I am debating between running the 5 mile race, or running the "Irishman" race, where you run the mile, 5k, and 5 mile races back to back. The miles are not intimidating to me...but the fact that it is racing is. I am not sure I can push it that much for that long. Right now it seems like a good idea...but we'll see how I feel in a few days. Either way, I will make a decision by the end of the week. I'll keep you posted. Really, I'm just looking forward to drinking the beer after the race. What a fabulous way to combine my two loves...irish beer and running. It just doesn't get any better than that!