The first race, suckout special and still put

Every time I’m in a race, there are moments I just want it to be over.
“Damn,” I’ll think to myself. “This is HARD.”
Thoughts of stopping and walking always haunt me. It just looks so sweet, those walking alongside the course, the way new parents look at pillows three stacks high or dieters gaze at cheesecake (or poker players smile at a turned set).
There are many reasons I run races. Not a whole lot of them have anything to do with fun.
Sunday I ran my first race of the summer season. It was a 5-mile run over rolling hills through Greeley and put on by our running coach. It, like many of the races I’ve run, was a lot more fun upon reflection than during the actual race.
I think a lot of our experiences are like that. Christmas dinner with the family can mean itchy sweaters, tense moments and dry turkey. Poker tournaments are stressful, sometimes cantankerous affairs, yet I always think how much fun they were, even after I bust out.
Races are the same way, too, and Sunday was no exception. It was hot at times. At times I couldn’t breathe much. I gagged a few times after the bile in my throat got caught in my craw. I was exhausted at times, too, and other times I had lots of energy. I rarely felt really good, but I know my running is improving because I rarely was completely miserable either.
My time was 38:52, or about a 7:47 per-mile pace. I was proud of that, and that time meant I may very well reach my goal of 47-48 minutes at the BolderBoulder, one of the country’s biggest (and most fun) 10K races in Boulder.
Still, there were many times during the race when I wanted to stop. The fun comes when you push through that pain and make yourself go, and go, in fact a little faster.

• • •

Speaking of pain, last night a guy at my table was raising every hand, and I pushed all in with AA when I flopped a set. The guy got his runner, runner flush on the river when he couldn’t let Q,10 sooted go to a re-raise.
That’s what I get for playing .5/.10 poker as a wind-down to the evening after playing the $25 NL tables for the better part of an hour Friday night. If I’m going to hang around there, even if it’s just for fun, I have to expect suckouts. I got one.

• • •

Oh, yeah, the girls. Kate is taking those blood pressure pills, and though she’s still having the occasional contraction, they’re still staying put for now. The doc wants her on those pills until they are 36 weeks, but I’m almost thinking a compromise is in order. They make her feel dizzy and exhausted all the time.
I say she takes them until mid-way through the 35th week. They’ve had those steroid shots and they’re already 5 pounds each. Really, how bad could it be?
Kate also thinks her body is getting ready for labor.
They’re coming. I can feel it too. Just not right now.
Probably.