I started the long drive from Iowa to Ohio on Thursday, April 30th at around 3:30 a.m. I wanted to be in Ohio by between 12-1p.m. to get to the running expo. Everything went as planned and the drive went really nicely. Only thing is I was really tired and it didn't help that Scott, my youngest child that was with me slept almost half the time.
First was the running expo and while we were there I heard they had a Plank competition. If you are really unsure of what a plank is, please go to this link and watch this short video:
Plank video
I knew I could do a 4 minute plank and hoped that would win the 60 minute massage. So I entered only with 6 other people. I was talking, laughing, goofing off until around 4 1/2 minutes, then things got serious. I needed to concentrate on breathing and just holding my body up. At 5 minutes in everyone dropped except me and a fit skinny guy. At 6 minutes in I really started to hurt, everything in my body hurt, my abs especially and my low back. At 6:30 I was shaking uncontrollably. I wanted to win so I held on. At 6 minutes 50 seconds my body fell forward, I let out some kind of groan and I dropped. I was hurting. So the guy next to me won. Bummer.
Here's the most awesome thing. The Columbus Dispatch paper was there and she interviewed me afterwards. She put me in the paper on page 2, a huge picture of me and said that I was outlasted by a male competitor, however she never even mentions his name or has his picture. Too funny.
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| Scott on the way to Ohio. He slept half of the time. Seriously, it was hard to stay awake and drive. |
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| This is that picture of me in the Columbus Dispatch paper. If you double click on it, you will see the article written about the plank competition. |
Personally I feel the competition should have been best male and female and not compared guys against girls. Oh well, hope he was hurting when I made him plank almost 7 minutes to beat me. I need to plank more to win next year. The race went well. I beat last year's course time by 7 minutes. It wasn't a PR, but it was close. Seems like all my half marathons are shorter than 2 hours 10 minutes now and that's such an improvement over past years. Next race is a half marathon in Iowa in two weeks.
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| This is actually a 13.1 sign. But it's hard to tell that. Either way, this picture was taken at the Expo two days before the race. |
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| Yummy birthday cake. |
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| We threw a surprise party for my Dad. |
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| Amazing sunrise the morning of the race. |
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| Racing Bib and medal. |
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| A super soft, dri fit, Brooks shirt. I think it's the best shirt to date that I've ever received from a race. Love it and have worn it several times post race. |
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| Me and my Mom! |
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| After the race with the finishing medal. |
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| Cool license plate. It says 5K RNR |
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| On the way home, the exit sign I saw off I-80. Too cool since I'll be there in a month doing my marathon. |
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