My ipod was mocking me

OK, so this is a long one.

So I don't really know if I had a good run or a bad run, but I guess I learned about running long distances.

My first four miles were great! They seemed more like two miles. I was at the end of the pack but I didn't really care. I had a great mix of music going and was really concentrating on the music and keeping a nice, easy pace. The next two miles weren't too bad either. The only weird thing is that since it was so windy I had to put my gloves back on. This is strange for me because even in zero degrees I have to take my gloves off because my hands get soooo hot. I am thinking that maybe this time I didn't get so hot because I was more hydrated? I usually am like a camel and drink maybe 2 glasses of water a day (I know, I know, this is bad). This time I had a glass of water before I left, two cones of water at the Spot and then 2 cones of Gatorade at the 4 mile mark. Maybe this is all psychosomatic, but I think it really made a huge difference. I didn't feel like peeling off all of my clothes after the first mile. OK, so I'm sold on drinking more. Water, of course.

The next two miles (mile 7 and 8) I was getting a little antsy. One reason is that my pants kept falling down below my gut so that they were like lo-rise pants. So my belly was REALLY REALLY cold. Another reason (I think) is because we were running on Eastern and it is all flat with no turns for like 4 miles. Boring. And really...is there a rule that on Eastern you don't take your Christmas decorations down ever?

The next water/gatorade stop I had to pump myself up. I was mentally finished and I still had a 5k all uphill. I was DRAGGING. It was horrible. My legs started to feel heavy. I looked at my watch and to keep the pace of a 10 min mile for the whole run I was completely on schedule. I had 30 minutes left to complete the run. The first runners in the A group (which is the fast group, who started a half hour later than us in the B group) started to pass me. Coach Joe started coming up on my right and asked how I felt. I shouted back "TIRED". He told me that I had less than two miles to go. Normally I would have thought 'wow, thats less than I thought' but today I was more like 'yeah, I guess that's about right". We finally hit the light at the top of Linwood. Now I felt like I was in reasonable distance to finish. When I hit the intersection at Edwards and Linwood a pain shot up the back of my left hamstring. I was now pacing with one of the guys who passed me up back at the beginning of Delta.
Stettinius Road...1 mile left. There was absolutely no second wind.

THEN my ipod starts playing "Push It". This just made me angry. Here I am, just concentrating on picking up my right foot and then my left and this stupid song comes on. I couldn't even keep pace with it. I was going SOOOOO SLOWLY.

But I made it back. And I realized that a good deal of the pack (well, maybe 8 people) that I started with was actually behind me. I have no idea how/where that happened. Two hours 10 minutes. That's an 11:29 pace. BLAH.