Race Day Maladies

  Yesterday was the Nashville Half Marathon.  That means 13.1 miles in which things can go terribly wrong.  Every single person that steps up to the starting line worries about one or more of those things.  Some racers worry about not being able to keep their pace, some worry about chaffing, some about a medical emergency, some worry about getting lost on the course, some worry about being last place, others about falling.  We all have our concerns before beginning a long distance race.

  Embarrassingly, my greatest race day fear is that I will need to use the bathroom during the race and not be able to get to a portapotty on the course.  Lots of others racers must also have this same fear, as is apparent by looking at the lines at the portapottys minutes before the race yesterday..

One poor guy that I passed had the most embarrassing moment of his life because he didn't make it to the portapotty and his disaster was visible to other runners.  I wanted to cry for the poor dude.

Fortunately, I have never had a race day bathroom disaster, but it will likely remain at the top of my fear list.

  I saw lots of people dealing with chaffing issues.  The medic tents were passing out Vaseline jelly on Popsicle sticks for people to use to rub onto any spots that were causing friction.  Only runners in pain would happily accept a Vaseline Popsicle.  Thankfully, I did not need a Vaseline Popsicle yesterday.

  During my race pace, I personally had to run around 3 different people who were lying on the road receiving medical attention from paramedics. The friends that traveled with me talked about others who were getting medical attention farther back on the course.  I have no idea what their injuries or emergencies were related to, but they were having a bad race day for sure.  

  My only race day boo boos yesterday were on my feet......

....so I chalk the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon as a race day success!