Doyle's Race

Doyle's 14th annual road race.


The clock is ticking loudly on the deadline to the Cape Relay Race.

It's 4 days and counting.

Cue the panic?

Run! Blueberry, Run!

I went home to prevent becoming sick yesterday. I woke up with 2 sick babies breathing in my face and I sounded pretty froggish by late in the morning. Matt told me to chew on some Zicam and head home. I would cry a river of tears if a head cold kept me from running this relay.

Katie sent me what is possibly the ugliest picture of myself yesterday from the Doyle's Race. I will not post it here. I look like a blue egg with a tiny head and squinchy eyes and huge legs. How terrible.

My wall of fame in it's present incarnation

The Doyle's race was good. Almost everyone on my team ran it. Four of them ran the 5 mile course early in the day and then again at 11am for a total of 10 miles. (I'm not a ten mile runner, mind you). The morning was crisp and almost cold. I wore a zip hoodie that I had to peel off mid-race when I started to overheat. I wrapped it around my hand and ran like that for the remainder of the race.

Traveling through the archway just after the start

I think beacuse I started out running with Meg my warm-up pace was just a little too fast for me. I was good for the first 2 miles but I hit a wall at mile 3 (just about when that picture was taken). The guy behind me said "If this was a 5k we'd be drinking a beer right now." There was a volunteer station just before the 2.5mile turn-round that kept playing the Cookie Monster song "C is for cookie and that's good enough for me nom nom nom" over and over and over until I am certain every runner had it in their heads.


The day went from crisp and cold to sweltering hot pretty quickly. The course itself was an out and back that ran through mostly shaded greenery and along the edge of a golf course. I looked with envy on the golf carts whizzing around and told myself I wouldn't steal one even if I could. I had to walk at a couple of points but I still finished in about 10 minutes a mile.


It was a good race and a lovely day. There were a few low points for me. For one thing, I saw far too many of my ex-girlfriends on the course. One was an accident and the other was an unwelcome surprise. Later on, after the race when we were walking to get food we walked right past another ex-girlfriend's house, completing Tana's Trifecta of Exes. A name I came up with to help myself feel better.

I am looking forward to someday doing a race in which I stand no chance of running into any of my exes. Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

Afterward my team gathered and drank some beers. Some of them had an impromptu dance party with wasted old guys which was sort of hilarious. Alecia brought a muscle roller and we had some fun with that. There were a lot of families and racing strollers and puppies. Doyle's itself was packed. A few of us walked into the center of JP to get some burritos and something to drink (vita coco! and beers!).

The pile up at the finish line

I feel much better today and think I have successfully ducked getting sick (fingers crossed). If you are looking for me I will be compulsively checking this weekend's weather forecast.

And, beacuse now I feel compelled to show my cards, no matter how unflattering they might be, here's that's blue egg squinchy pic I mentioned earlier in this post.

(Grooooan).

Peace out.

Gawd, it's just so terrible...