Saturday, August 23, 2008

Near Miss

Well, after my long yesterday with Running Buddy, I decided to round off the day with a lovely 30 mile bike ride.  I was still feeling energetic and I really wanted to get 2-3 hours of training in yesterday, so I took Ol' Speedy out for a spin later in the evening before I got to the dreaded yard work.  

I went my usual 30 mile route and 9 times out of 10, my rides are uneventful.  I live in a "relatively" low traffic area/neighborhood and although I have had a few close calls with cars, yesterday's close call was nothing short of a HORRIFYING experience.  It was the mother fucker of near misses let me tell ya.....what's with people not looking in the rear view mirror or from side to side before backing outta their driveways???  Especially when your house sits on a busy rode.  

I came within inches of my life and I nearly t-boned a car backing out of its driveway.  I had briefly looked down at my bike computer and when I looked up the car was RIGHT THERE.  I think I even felt the exhaust coming from it's tailpipe as I swerved to the other side of the rode. 

Yes, maybe I was responsible too (thank HEAVENS for good bike handling skills) and I should have been even MORE alert than I normally am, but for shit's sake.....this fool wasn't looking.  I shook like a leaf and thought about how badly I could have been hurt.  It would have knocked me out for sure not to mention what would have happened to Ol' Speedy.  

I have a brief recollection of the whole incident but I think I heard angels saying "not today.....not today....."  and then I could have sworn I heard Dirty Harry saying to me...."Do you feel lucky?  Well do ya? Punk!"


Of course the rest of the ride was ok, I was just a bit nervous and jittery....but I made it home to tell the story.


Today was the ECSC 5k down at the oceanfront and I must say I'm pleased with my results.  It was a gorgeous morning and I drove down to Running Buddy's condo and we rode our bikes down to the start line.  When I got to her condo, my dear partner came out looking way too fresh and pretty and put together to be racing this morning.  Way too much smiling and perkiness.  So, I asked her fiance and he promptly informs me that Running Buddy had just rolled out of the bed.  Ummm hmm......countless times I have told her to get up early enough to eat breakfast and poop and generally just get the blood flowing and brain awake.  Running Buddy blames it on the alarm clock that didn't go off.  I guess it's time for some very RUDE wake up calls from me....the coach from hell.  

Anyway, we made it down to the race start and did a warm up run.  As we gathered at the start line, I gave Running Buddy some tips on practicing mental strategies and breathing.  It's what I really want her to work on at some of these smaller races since she likes to psych herself out sometimes.  When the gun went off it was every man for himself.  I hit the first mile marker at 7:28 mpm and the second mile mark at 15:00 min on the dot.  I followed a very young girl for the first 2.5 miles and then she fell back and even my pace slowed.  The sun was hot and the wind was at my back so I was sweating like a champ.  I was pushing my pace limits for sure on the last mile......I started to drool because I was breathing too hard to swallow and all I could do was a modified spit drool...kinda like the kind you do at the dentist's office after your first shot of Novocaine.  

I tried to hold the pace all the way down the line and I looked at my watch and it clicked over at 23:00 min.  I wanted so bad to finish that last .10 and come in under 24:00 min.  I just barely made it I think at 23:55......not sure for sure......I forgot to hit stop on my watch as I crossed the mat.....I was still doing the modified spit thing.  I couldn't even muster a breath to get my timing chip off.  But I did place 3rd in my age group and I was happy with that.  Running Buddy did very well too at 25 min and some odd seconds.  After I got my award, we decided to finish up the morning run with another 3 miles which pretty much de-fueled us both.  We rode our bikes back to the condo and mapped out next week's running/workout schedule.  Running Buddy is on a mission and doing some double workouts next week.  We also start school on Monday.  Tomorrow is an easy day....probably just some surfing, a long bike ride and hopefully no near misses!!!

1 comment:

MoonChaser said...

Now that I have completely stalked you and commented on every blog... i'll just say how proud of you i am. What a champ! I'm just glad you let me tag along.

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