I Can't Chew Gum and Run.

No, really.

We had a track workout tonight in the 40-something weather (actually my favorite weather to run in - why am I doing a tri in Hawaii again?!), and after a 1.5-mile warm-up (actually ~20 minutes of jogging) we were partnered with another runner for a 4-mile relay. We could break the relay up however we wanted to, and we decided to run a mile before switching off, with my partner going first. We also had to guess our total time, and my partner figured she could run a 9:30-mile, and I guessed 12 minutes (I'm slow but steady), so we had a total of 43:30. There were "prizes" for the team closest to their guesstimated time, so speed wasn't the issue, and they wanted us to work on pacing.

So, I chew gum when I run. It keeps my mouth from dying out and keeps me from having that awful "I have to spit" feeling (gross, I know - I haven't gotten to the snot rocket phase of tri training, and I hope I never do). So I'm in the third lap of my first mile and am breathing pretty hard (I am completely incapable of not competing and thus was running harder than I probably should have. Which is still really slow.), and I look down at the track and exhale...

...and lose my gum. I watched it is slow motion, like locking your keys in the car, and had that "noooooo!" moment where I tried to grab for it and missed. It landed on the track and I just kept running instead of picking it up.

Hey, we were being timed!

Of course, I kept glancing back to see if anyone had stepped in it, and was listening for people to complain about it, and was visualizing the lecture we'd all get at the end of the workout about not chewing gum on the track (I have no idea if that's a rule or not). As I rounded the track and returned to the same area, I began scanning the second lane for the tell-tale white spot of stepped-on gum. However, when I saw it, I was delighted to find that the little piece of gum had frozen into a hard white pellet on the track! It wasn't smeared or sticky, just frozen.

Crisis averted! Thank you cold weather! At any rate, instead of the 43:30 we ran four miles (2 each) in just over 37 minutes - under ten minutes per mile (although I suspect that it was my partner that lowered the average, not me)!

And next time I'll try to run with my mouth closed.