Call Me Quinn/Reggae Marathon

So I haven’t updated in FOR-E-VER (think Sandlot, yyyeaahhh).  I have decided to split the following topics up into different posts to make it easier to spread out and read.  I know not EVERYONE (or anyone for that matter) has 30mins to sit and read my rambles, so yeah.  Here’s the line up:

-Reggae Marathon

-ESC

-Doc

-Miss Queensbury

-Christmas

-Travelling adventures will be inserted in all of these topics, because..well.. it’s usually the most entertaining part of my day.

First off, “Quinn.”  This is my alias name.  Who doesn’t have an alias name?  But yeah, I guess I have always liked the name Quinn since that show on MTV.  You remember it, that’s right, “Daria.”  HA!  Quinn was Daria’s popular and far more dumb older sister.  Not that I liked the character, but I love the name.  Not sure why, perhaps it just easily rolls off the tongue.  Easy to say.  Also, most guys that wanna know my name, I am not going to see them ever again in my life, so…Quinn it is.  I always smile when I give my “name,” too.  It’s like I’m proud of myself or something.  No stutter, no nothing.  ”Hey pretty girl. We cyan be friends?  What is your name?”  ”Quinn.”  Ha.. every time.

Okay, let’s get this thing rolling…

Reggae Marathon (December 3)

Most all of my friends have ran in a number of races.  I usually just sit back and support them, but not this time.  I am doing this whole new life thing, you know, picking up and moving to a different country for 26 months (21 months remaining) deal.  So why not continue the new life stuff with actually entering a race?  Choices: 10k (about 6.2miles), Half Marathon (about 13.1miles), and a Marathon (about 26.2miles).  Of course I chose the 10K.  I’ve never ran that far in my life.   I tried training for it.  Ran about as far as 2miles up hill a couple times, and did some bicycle riding, but never ran a straight 6miles.

I had a goal of running it in 45mins.  YEAH RIGHT.  I bumped that up to 1hr fast. lol After talking with Sammi (group 81 pcv) ,I decided that since I didn’t really train and I have never ran that far before, that I should up the time.  Also, Sammi was pacing for 1hr15mins, so we decided to pace each other.  It went well, until about the 3.5mile mark where I got weak.  My stomach felt like it was going to drop out of butt, literally.  I had to slow down, so I told Sammi to keep going so I didn’t slow her down.  I had to walk.  Apparently it isn’t a good idea to eat yogurt/dairy before a race.  Between that, the nasty gatorade bag juice I downed right before running, and taking my nasal spray meds, my body was all sorts of messed up.  I’m not trying to make excuses on why I had to walk, but my stomach needed to calm down, for real.  In any case… I walked for a bit, but still, my walk was fast.  Autolegs.   They wouldn’t really slow down, they new they needed to keep going, and if I stopped at all, I would probably fall due to irregular muscle movement, or something like that.  I walked for maybe .2 miles, then started up the jog again, this time going faster.  If I got the rest, I MUST be able to run faster, now.  So I ran faster trying to make up for any lost time.  Walked a bit, ran faster, walked again, than ran the rest of the time.  I kept passing people, then they’d pass me, then I would pass them again, it was fun.  I also kept up with this one dude for a bit.  He was walking, so I went up to him saying, “almost there, let’s go!”  He laughed, then started running.   So get this:  many of us got fooled about the finish line.  I thought the finish line was where the start line was, sounds about right, huh?  When I saw the “finish line” I began a sprint.  I could barely feel my legs, but from what I remember, I pictured them looking like pure muscle, teehee.   It was probably about 100M of a sprint, soo tired, but determined to pass everyone in front of me, which I did.  I guess there was a reason, err they knew it was not the finish line.  My long sprint was a waste.  It took the remainder of whatever energy I had for me to sprint this last leg, then this volunteer tells me I have another .25 miles!  Ahh!! It was the longest .25miles of my life.  I had to walk and catch my breath, then that dude I helped get running earlier, came up on me, and said, “My turn now, let’s go.” So nice.  I complained how I thought I had finished the race, so walked for like 5more seconds, then started my jog again to finish.  I thought Sammi had already passed, but nope, I saw her on the turn around, and she was beat, but going strong.   I keep running, to finally have view of the finish shoot.  So once again, I gather up the stamina to get a sprint (after all, gotta look good for the on lookers).

I kind of crossed by myself, with not many persons around me.  1:05:17 is the official time.  Sammi came in like 3mins before me, big ups Sammi!  Let me tell you, the people on the sidelines that were watching, sooo encouraging!  They were clapping for everyone, and kept telling us that we were doing such a great job!  Kept me going, that and the fact that I like to put on a show, so I tried to look strong (even when walking).  I’m so upset that I walked. Ugh… Whatever.  The end line was a jungle.  First, I [unexpectedly]  saw my friend Anne Bruce as I finished!  She was volunteering and handing out all the medals to the finishers.  I was so happy to see her!  What a grand prize for finishing and medal handed to me by a fellow pcv friend!  After receiving our medal, we had to take the chip off our shoes (they give you this so they can track your times for the race, pretty nifty), then we were open to a bunch of stuff.  First stop: coconut water, straight from the coconut!  Best drink ever!  However, that coconut is so darn heavy!  If only I had someone to hold the coconut for me while I sipped through the straw .  We basically just stood around waiting for our other friends in the race.  After a while, a couple of us decided to go back to a hotel that people were staying at, shower, then grab some grub.

Getting home from Negril.  Well, I stayed with Malley (group 82 pcv) in Savanna-La-Mar (Sav, or Sav-La for short) Friday night before the race since she lives like 20mins from Negril, we woke up at 3:15am Saturday morning and got a ride to Negril to be there by 4am (an hour before race start time).  That was a good deal.  Malley rode with me on the way back to Sav, put me on a bus to Black River, then headed out.  Yeah, 1hr and 3 people threatening to grab a taxi later, the bus finally left.  I hate taking country buses, they usually take forever to fill up, so you’re sitting there forever squished, or in this case, not squished cuz nobody wanted to go to Black River via bus, but still, it’s hot and boring, especially if you are trying to get home at a decent hour.  Ugh…ok.. Over-all Success!

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