Pain in the Butt

Saturday was supposed to be the first meet of the outdoor season, and yes it's cold outside. Unfortunatley I was sidelined for this one. I had every intention of racing but when I woke up I was unsure. I've been having a slight issue with a muscle in my glutes for the past month or so. I know that there were things that I probably shouldn't have done...like race last weekend...but honestly it only gets buggy every so often. It hurts the most though when I've been sitting for long periods of time, sitting on the floor is the worst, and when I drive. Of course any normal person would have gone to the doctor but I'm convinced that it's not that serious. So instead of trying to find a PT, I went online to self-diagnose. I believe it to be the piriformis muscle that is the cause of the inflicted leg. All the symptoms matched and the causes made sense. Though I won't rely solely on a web diagnostics, I'm going to take it easy (seriously), see where that leaves me and there after if it's still in the state it's been in, I will seek alternative measures, i.e. the real physical therapist. Or you know I could always just ice bath it :)

Gotta Watch

Here's an absolutly HILARIOUS clip that some of my teammates put together. Just visualize seeing this while walking down the streets in Boston. Hope it will make you laugh as hard as I did (PS. make sure you have the sound on)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfwBB_dxXnQ

A Day O'Lucky

WOOOHOOO!!! Is all I can say. I can't even begin to describe how happy that I am about my race today. This was my 4th annual race at the South Boston St. Patty's Day 5K. Since it's not a very competitive race I was hoping to go into the race and win it all, I was 2nd place female last year. That was until I found out that 2 of my teammates were going to run in it, so I knew that I clearly wasn't going to get that, both girls have far more strength in the distance area. I accepted that fact and instead decided to focus on #1 dropping my time from last year.

The race started off way too fast for my pace, I realized that quickly and settled back a bit. As I dropped the speed my teammate had said to me- 'You better be #3'. I hit mile 1 at 6:12, typical 1st mile split, fast but I didn't fell too strained. Rounded the statue chugged up the hill, split mile 2 at 6:30, surprisingly more even than it usually is. Basically I had been running by myself up until this point with a few guys sporadically passing me or vice versa. Then right after I passed the 2 mile mark I heard one of the spectators yell go #3 and 4. That's when I was made aware that there was a girl coming up on me. All that flashed through my head was #3, #3, #3, I didn't even care at that point what my time was, I was going to be the third female to come in. I felt her come up on my shoulder then she slightly got a step ahead. Randomly, I haven't a clue why I did it, but I said out loud "I don't think so" then proceeded to pick up the pace. She stayed on my back for the last mile and everytime she got too close I speed up. I was simply determined not to let her get past me. Once we rounded one of the last corners with about 300 meters to go I knew that she had nothing on me, I've got to hand it to my kick it's the thing that always comes through in the end. So in the end I got my #3 place. But that's not the only greatness that came out of the race. I had thought when I crossed the finish line that the clock had said 20:00. I was excited because it was a lifetime PR in the 5K but just slightly bummed because all last fall I was determined to break the 20 min barrier and this time I was actually sooooo close. Well folks my happy ending was granted because the race results had me clocked in at 19:59. I can't even tell you how elated, joyed, crazy happy I was.

It turned to be a fun and rewarding race. The 3 of us went 1, 2 & 3 for the females, the one that came in first won the entire race (yeah she's good). Go GBTC gals!!! And I also took home the metal for 1st South Boston female resident. Go ME!! I can only hope that this is just a glimpse into how the outdoor season's going to be. Here I come PR's.

119 24:24 7:52 23 20-29 34 F144 Deanna Clark S.Boston,MA (2005)
149 25:07 8:06 30 20-29 44 F130 Deanna Clark S.Boston,MA (2006)
16 21:02 6:47 2 20-29 2 F166 Deanna Clark Boston,MA (2007)
24 19:59 6:27 3 20-29 3 F506 Deanna Clark S. Boston,MA (2008)