It's been a bit since my last blog post because I have been WAY too busy working on the house, working, training, and traveling. I just got back from a few days in Memphis (no, I didn't get to see the King) and am finally able to catch up.
Friday, Mom and Dad came over around 4pm and I got to show off all the details of my new kitchen. Sally and Scott came over around 5:30 and we all had a nice dinner together before Sally, Scott, and Tim headed off for the Tampa Bay Rays vs NY Yankess games.
Mom and Dad stayed the night but I think we were all pretty restless... me, Dad, and Fred. The red wine at dinner gave me some sinus issues and I was up at 1am to take a Zyrtec-D pill, which pretty much kept me up all night. I heard Daddy up around 3:45am and a little after 4am Fred was sitting in the bathtub meowing at the top of his lungs.
6am came way too early. But we got up, and headed out the door at 6:40am to head over to Tim's condo where he saved us a parking space. While Mom and I headed out to the start of the Race for the Cure 10k, Tim and Dad puttered around and wandered over to the Vinoy Hotel for coffee and bagels.
Our 10k start out pretty well and we were keeping a pretty good walking pace. We quickly caught up to and passed 3 young girls who had been jogging and walking. Mom dubbed these girls "the boa girls" because each of them was wearing a pink feather boa. Between mile 2 and 3 were we headed out on a straight stretch - a gradual uphill with no shade. I brought Gu for us to take at the half way point. Mom was walking a little funny, leaning way forward and I thought it was just because of the uphill walk. We made it to 3.1 miles in 51:50 (Mom's previous PR was around an hour).
We made the turnaround and and we could see that we had put a good distance on "the boa girls". As we approached the water station, I got out the Gu as and we slowed down to take the Gu, Mom really started to wobble. I told her to just stop so she could take the Gu without walking but she was completely out of balance. She headed to the curb and held onto a light pole for balance. A police man guarding that corner came over and convince Mom to let him help her to the other side of the street where there was a bench. She sat down and took her Gu, and some water, and some juice. Someone handed her a cloth with cold water and we poured cold water over her head. Another girl gave us a baggie with some Peanut Butter Crunch in it. Within just a couple of minutes, she was recovered and stood up to start going again. I really watched her pace at this point and was pleased that it was a little slower than we were going in the first half. But now we were on a downhill and there was another lady ahead of us who looked like she was suffering so Mom wanted to pick up the pace to catch up with her to keep an eye on her.
Even though we were walking behind her, Mom said that before we got to the finish line she wanted to pass her. Now I knew she was OK! I had Mom eat a few more Peanut Butter Crunch, believing that her primary issue was low blood sugar. But she only ate a few of them before mile 4.
She was doing well between miles 4 and 5 after we had merged with those doing the 5k walk. It was so crowded that we were forced to slow down and she was working to get around a lot of these people. Right around mile 6 we saw Tim and Dad sitting in chairs on the side of the road. We stopped so Tim could take our picture, and she got all wobbly again. We made it around the corner and were approaching the finish line but it was really, really crowded and when she had to stop again, she almost fell over.
The weeble wobbled, but she didn't fall over!
She hit the wall, but she didn't hit the pavement.
We got over the finish line and let her lean up against the fence and have a cool drink and I poured more water over her head. I know that the heat and humidity really bothered her, but I think that the low blood sugar was the real culprit. During our next 10k (on Nov. 8), we're going to try to at least take a Gu every 2 miles and see if eat earlier and more often, if that will help overcome the wobbles. Plus, I am hoping it will be a little cooler.
No comments:
Post a Comment