Playing tennis and solving mysteries.Next up: Saturday. ACTION-PACKED SATURDAY! Karl and I got up around 8:00 to get ready for the Jill Behrman 5K race that started at IU's Memorial Stadium. It was a bit of a dreary, cold morning, but we, along with about 800 other people, managed to motivate ourselves enough to run the race. It ended up raising over $17,000 for Jill's House, a charity that houses cancer patients when they receive treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. If you are not familiar with Jill Behrman's story, I suggest you check out the Bloomingpedia page on her. She was an IU student a year younger than me who went missing in May of 2000 when she went out for a bike ride, and her remains weren't found until 2003.
As usual, I've gotten a bit off topic! Back to the race itself. I took off and got a little boxed in at the start. It seems that people really don't know where to stand at the start line of these big races, and some of the more casual runners and walkers end up near the front, thus creating the "boxed in" effect for those who wish to run a little faster. I think it is GREAT that so many people go out to run races to support worth causes, such as the Jill's House charity, but I also think there needs to be a "road race etiquette guide" distributed to everyone running a road race. It could include guidelines like where to stand at the start based on your target pace, realizing why some races institute rules such as no dogs/strollers on the course, information on not running through the finish chute if you didn't actually register because it messes up the entire finish line system (and running a race but not registering is an entire other issue in itself!), etc.
Back to the race: once I was able to get out of the pack I just felt "okay". Not a lot of life in my legs, and the first two miles of the course are predominantly uphill. I hit the first mile at 7:08, which is slower than my first mile time in most of my other recent races, ht the second mile at 14:30, and at that point I had pretty much given up on my goal of breaking 22 minutes. But wait! The last mile is predominantly DOWNHILL, so I was able to really pick it up and finished in 21:54, which is a 7:03 overall pace. I was pretty excited about that time given the amount of hills, the somewhat "blah" feeling of my legs, and the fact that it was a windy day and I was running against the wind (cue Bob Seger) for most of the race. I was also surprised to find out that I was the third place overall female, behind a 20-year-old and a 21-year-old. It always feels great to place in the top three overall, but especially in such a large race. I got first place in my age group out of 61 people, and won a $15 gift certificate to the Indiana Running Company store in downtown Bloomington! Karl did a great job in the race, finishing in 19:28 and 20th place overall. It was his second-best 5K time of the year, and he just barely missed getting an age group award, as he got 4th in his age group and they only gave prizes to the top three. No matter, we both went to the Indiana Running Company after and he got some new running shorts, while I got a new sports bra and winter running shirt. :) You can see the full list of results here.
A picture from the start of the race. I got this from the Bloomington Herald Times website. If you look closely you can see Karl's head!
My age group awardAfter a quick trip to the Farmer's Market for some Brown County Coffee (yummmm), acorn squash, and apples, we had brunch at Michael's Uptown Cafe with my good friend, Erin McNary, who was in town for the ISSOTL Conference, which focuses on research on teaching and learning. It was great seeing her and catching up! She had a super busy itinerary during her trip, so I was glad I got the chance to see her a few times (we also had coffee on Friday morning).
On Saturday night we ate dinner at Scotty's and then headed to the Bluebird to catch one of my favorite singers, Pete Yorn. I feel like there aren't many people who know about him, but after posting some pics on Facebook I found out that I actually know a lot of PY fans! :) The opening band was fantastic. Karl and I had never heard of them, but their name was Alberta Cross. The lead singer is from Sweden but now lives in Brooklyn. We talked to him for quite a while after the concert and he was really friendly. Of course I had to ask him what he thinks of Stevie Nicks since she is my all-time favorite singer. He likes her...but likes Neil Young better. Pete Yorn's set was AMAZING and I was so glad we had the chance to see him at a venue like the Bluebird, which is pretty small, so you usually get a great view of the performer. I thought he sounded just like he does on his CDs, which was also nice. I'll post a few videos and photos below:
Alberta Cross opening for Pete Yorn at the Bluebird on 10/24/09.
Pete Yorn at the Bluebird in Bloomington...October 24, 2009.
Pete YornTwo videos that I took:
Finally, after the concert we hung out around the merchandise table for a while hoping to catch a glimpse of Pete in person, but after waiting a while we decided to give up and leave. Well, it turned out to be a case of perfect timing, because as we were leaving we saw him hanging out the door to his tour bus talking to the lead singer of Alberta Cross. We hurried over and I was able to get this picture with him! I saw some pictures he took with other people from last night's show and he didn't smile in any of them...I guess that's his "picture face". It was a great show and meeting him after was just a cherry on top of the great day Karl and I had. :)
Pete Yorn and meThat's all for now. More to come (probably next weekend!)
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