Eric's Guest post!

Kara suggested that my husband, Eric, do a guest post with his Baltimore Ten Miler experience (she noticed that based on his Facebook statuses, it might be an interesting post). I've really wanted him to do a guest post for a long time, since his pictures tend to get such positive feedback. As expected, he protested like crazy when I brought it up, but I pulled the birthday card, so he has been basically forced into it. He freaked out that he would "come up with a post that everyone hated", so I suggested an interview format to help calm his nerves.


Here it is, straight from his mouth (typed by me, verbatim). 





Alyssa: Tell us the events leading up to the race.


Eric: I had to work Thursday night, and didn't get home until 3am. I had a full day of cleaning and things that needed to be done, so I woke up at 8 or 9 Friday. I was up early, went to the chiropractor, went to Home Depot to get all the stuff to clean and organize the house, bought a safe, so all our documents are now safe. Once I cleaned and organized the observatory and the bathroom, I began vacuuming. I had to be at work at 4:30, I got done cleaning about 3:30, so that meant no nap. No proper nutrition. I went to work, I bought two 1.5 liters of water and a foot long sub. I had to work cashier, so I couldn't get any other sustenance. So, um, I drank all the water, I ate the sub. Nothing exciting really happened except a guy told me "F-you" because he didn't understand what a cover charge was. He got mad because he paid cover and he thought he should get a free drink. Other than that, uneventful night.


So at the end of the night, I was counting the cash, and I thought I was $200 over, and the manager counted, and said I was $80 short. While I was finishing up all the other stuff, he came to me and said I was $20 over, but that's still a write up. 

Really old picture, all I could find of him in his work uniform.

So when I finally got home, about 3 in the morning, I was too wired to sleep, so I made a little playlist, so I laid down about 4:30, which gave me about an hour of sleep. I woke up, picked up my running outfit, which was my usual vibrant self, my highlighter yellow shirt. 


We got in the car, I had my protein shake and two pieces of toast, I took a little half hour nap.

Once we arrived, I took my 5 hour energy. Then we began the mile walk to the start line, it was a good warm up for me, considering the fact I hadn't trained for this run. After checking our bags and going to the porto potties, I said goodbye to my lovely, beautiful, supportive, best woman on the planet, wife (I swear, these are his words!) oh and did I mention sexy? I went back to my start, as always, I had trouble trying to figure out when to start my Runkeeper app so that it gives me an accurate reading. And as always, I started it way too early, and I ended it way too late. 

As I started my descent into these ten miles, I was having a little bit of chest pains, a little bit of issues breathing, that lasted for about a mile, maybe a mile and a half. Then I started to feel my stride, I was feeling pretty good. About three miles in, I saw my twin brother, another black guy wearing my exact highlighter yellow shirt. We yoyo'd for about a half mile. Then he ate my dust.

I felt pretty good as I went through mile 4. I saw Ashley and my other friend Adam who runs at a ridiculous pace. I felt pretty good, then it happened. And by it, I mean Lake Montebello. I think the mix of not getting enough sleep or proper nutrition combined with treacherous Lake Montebello conspired to have my body shut down. 

After mile 5, it became a mixture of run, walk, limp, the process repeated itself for the last five miles. As I got to mile 9 and the last water station all the people who were cheering, I couldn't really hear what they were saying, but it looked like they were cheering for me, I'm not sure because I was rocking out to my playlist. They did help me get through the last mile. That, and the Final Countdown, by Europe. As I came around the turn to see the finish line, I had cramps in both my quads, both my calves, but I still persevered to run that last 50 yards. 

Even though the picture doesn't show it, I was in a hell of a lot of pain. There was many times during this run that I thought about quitting, and walking the whole way, but all I could think of is, if I quit, I won't earn the white jacket. And really, that's the only reason I ran this race, or I run at all, is for stuff.

Alyssa: Anything else?

Eric: I can't think of anything. I really don't want to relive those miles 6-10, so they went pretty fast, but in reality, they were pretty slow. It was by far my worst running experience ever. And I will never do a race again without training. And if I need to, I will quit my job, because I will not work the night before a race again.

If you want a little interesting tidbit, my time in this race was 2:20 and my fastest half marathon was 2:45, so that should tell you how terrible of a race it was. I finished 329 out of 333 in my age group. I did not have negative splits.

I guess really just the one question was all he needed! The "never doing a race without training thing" is on the internets now, so it's official. Might as well be written in blood.