Note to self: Keep mouth shut

This past weekend was my team's first official running event of the season; the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon in Humboldt County. Avenue is a small affair. Maybe a thousand total runners which included the full and 10k runners.

I registered for the half several days before as a last minute decision after doing so well at Big Sur and I carpooled and shared a hotel room with my mentee and another fellow mentor who registered for the half also.

It's a long, five hour drive to Humboldt but we never lacked conversation to fill the time. At one point, I realized I said too much about races and running and times and PR's and now, I am known on the team as the "competitive one". Sounds fairly negative, doesn't it? Who wants to be friends with someone who's determined to out race you? But I'm not like that at all. Okay, maybe I'm a bit competitive but I'm competitive against myself and the clock, not with anyone else. I just want to excel in running. If I'm giving people the wrong idea, I better keep my mouth shut.

Good advice for me to follow but this weekend, I failed to do that. Even during the race, I made the mistake of telling one of the captains, who was kind enough to run a mile with me when I started to crash, that I had to pee very badly. And yes, I did make several pitstops well before the race started. But I drank three bottles of water along with two cliff bars. I HEARD the water sloshing around in my near empty stomach around mile 9 and it hurt! I thought I was going to puke up water. I drank way too much and I should know better. Ruined my pace time despite the PR. I have something else to live down. The captain who ran with me, told everyone else on the team that he came across on the course that I had to pee. Nice.


On a different note, I saw my ex working the sign in table (guy in grey). Coincidentally, we parked right next to his jeep (he was staying at the same hotel), and since there was no way to avoid each other without ignoring the other's presence (the event wasn't large enough), we briefly chatted about nothing. I did say goodbye to him before departing the event and as usual, he teased me for "wanting freebies" and egged me on for a reaction, so I punched him in the arm playfully, of course. It felt good but I really meant to bruise him. :)