Tied my record!

Distance: 5K
Time: 26:37.0
Pace: 8:35

I didn't beat my PR, but I did equal it! This morning's run went quite well, even though I didn't make my goal pace of 8:20.

It was supposed to rain, but it held off until after the race ended. My dedicated support staff and I got there about a half hour before the race began, and I was pleased to see that the registration packet had a detailed course map, so I walked around and took a look at the start and finish lines.

When the race began, I started off feeling as if I wasn't going fast enough. I thought that maybe my legs had gotten used to running a slow pace for long runs, and that I'd finish the race and be horrified to see a 10-minute pace or something way off my goal like that. At mile 1, however, I glanced at my watch and saw that I was at 8 minutes. I was really surprised by that, and I actually tried to slow it down so I wouldn't kill myself before I was halfway through. The second mile went similarly. The split for that was slower, but still ahead of goal pace. In mile 3, I thought I was keeping up the pace, but I obviously slowed, and I know that it was on the hills. The whole race had a lot of rolling hills, but there were more in the last half than in the first, and the descents on those were shorter, until it seemed at the end that when I got to a hill, it went up and merely leveled off for a bit until the next hill. I looked at my watch, knowing that in order to keep pace I'd have to pass the 3 mile mark at 25:00. At that point it was 25:11 and no sign of mile 3. I was disappointed by that, but I kept going, trying to keep up, and right after I did finally pass it, I recognized where I was. We were funneled off the street onto the playing fields behind the town firehouse, where we had to run single file between the fence on someone's private property and the chain-link fence of a basketball court before coming to the home stretch.

When I saw that the fence was coming up, I passed two people ahead of me, then I picked up the speed through the single-file part and when I got through, made a dash to catch as many other people as I could. I almost twisted an ankle there, because the ground was uneven, but I didn't. I heard my support staff cheering me on, and I focused on the clock ahead of me. 26:32 - only a few more seconds before my chance of breaking the PR was gone! I sprinted through the finish, not knowing if I made it or not. As I made my way through the chute, I heard someone say "Now that's a nice strong finish," which made me feel great.

There were about 300 participants in this race, so I did not expect to place in my age category, but I checked the result chart anyway, and I was 2nd! I placed 92nd overall, and 18th among females.

Here's the irony: I couldn't stay for the awards ceremony! One of my co-workers was getting married at 1 PM, so after I checked out my time, I had to skedaddle out of there, go home, shower, make myself presentable, eat something, and then get to the church. Luckily I was able to do all of that and arrive on time for the wedding. I do wonder what possessed me to wear these shoes, though:


I don't know what was unhappier: my tight calves or very squished toes. I really like the shoes, though.

I sat with some other co-workers at the wedding, and one asked how the race went. Another asked how many miles 5 kilometers is. When I told him, he looked shocked and asked me if I ran the whole thing. Then he asked what place I came in, and when I told him that, he said, "I'm sorry. I have to apologize. I know that you bought that expensive mountain bike and all, but I didn't realize that...well...you're an athlete. You're really an athlete. I just would have never thought." Umm...thanks?

On another note, my friend successfully completed her first half-marathon! I think that it was a little under 2 hours, which is awesome, considering she's never run in a race longer than a 5K before today! I'd like to run a 10K this year, and maybe work up to a half marathon next year. We'll see!

Ever on.