ten ten ten

Yes. Been a while.
Drove to Penticton after work on Friday, crashed and then continued on to Kelowna for the package pickup and to check into our hotel and to have dinner with another North Shore runner and her family before the big event. I don't remember the last time I had dinner with another couple and three small kids. Probably because it's never happened before. Kids perplex and exhaust me. Hell, most things perplex and exhaust me.
Our motel room was on the second floor and there was no elevator. We didn't notice that before the race.
At around 11:30 I went into the hallway and told the people partying in the room across the hall from us to essentially STFU. I must have been terrifying in my baby blue flannel pajamas. And, as I was telling them to keep it to a dull roar I was fully aware that they were ten years younger than me, that it was the Okanagan on the Saturday night of a long weekend and if someone had told me to zip it when I was 23 and had my drink on, I probably would've politely encouraged them to step outside to discuss the matter further. Instead, the dumpy blonde with the not so great haircut said, "Marathon? That's so cool".
I'm such a bitch.
The race started at 7.15 on Sunday. I mean, what the hell. Whatever. It's not like I ever really sleep the night before anyways. Got to the start, some idiot started badgering everyone to sing the Canadian anthem more loudly (seriously: 7.15 in the morning) and then we were off.
Michael was gone pretty quickly and my first kilometre was sub five minutes so I was happy. The larger marathons can sometimes be a bit of a clusterfuck at the beginning, but this was a smaller race (most participants were doing the half) and so the crowd dispersed pretty quickly.
I had seen the 3:30 pace bunny at some point before the race started and, the night before, I had mulled over trying to keep up with him for as long as possible since I had done a 3:30 in Boston, but I didn't see him in front of me and so I just ran at my own pace for a while.
It was cool but not cold. At one point (around 10k?) it started to absolutely piss rain and was exorbitantly windy.
We have been supremely lucky for all of our marathons: the weather has always been mostly cooperative. I thought we were due for some shitty weather and when this little squall blew up I became a bit despondent. The wind and rain was adhering my shirt to my body and I thought my hat might blow off. I figured my Shuffle would short out and I started to worry about how much the wind was going to wear me out over the next 30k and how the rain was just plain depressing.
So, naturally, it all let up. I kid you not.
Hey, it was lucky number seven on 10/10/10.