I was feeling somewhat sick and seriously considered just staying in bed. But I ended up deciding to go, especially because my friend Colleen was there too. (Honestly, if she hadn't been I would have skipped.)
We met in a different parking lot because Colleen has been to this race before and she said parking can be hard to get. We met pretty early- the race was at 9:30am but we wanted to make sure we got in the actual lot. I forgot to account for the lack of traffic on a Saturday morning so I actually got there around 8am. We were planning to meet at 8:15. (Registration started at 8.)
The weather ended up being pretty nice and we took my car to the actual lot where the race was. It was kind of icy/muddy so after the first time from our car to the Rose Barn (where registration was as well as the after race activities) we went the long way around, on the road. It was nice that everything was inside because it can get pretty cold. We both brought a bunch of layers and were trying to decide what to wear. It can be hard to figure out.
Before the race
I ended up wearing what you see. I decided not to go with any type of hat, so I adjusted my ponytail higher before the race. I originally had arm warmers underneath the purple shirt but right before the race started I decided to take them off. I'm glad I did that- I would have been fine in a short sleeved shirt. (I did have a short sleeved shirt underneath but I didn't want to stop to take off the purple shirt while trying to run, and my bib was on the purple shirt.)
This was another out and back course, in North Park. It's where Colleen and I run most of the time so it was really familiar. We started at the Boathouse and there wasn't chip timing at the start. It took a shortcut by the tennis courts, which went over a bridge and on some gravel. That was pretty icy. I ran the entire first half to the turnaround but again I started out too fast. I don't know if it's because of all the other runners, but my first .25 miles was 2:10 (an 8:40 pace when I normally run more around a 10:00 pace). So I started trying to pace myself closer to 10:00 miles.
My mile splits:
Mile 1: 9:27
Mile 2: 9:55 (Total time 19:12)
Mile 3: 10:39 (Total time (29:41)
Also, I don't think it was quite 3.1 miles. This time it was probably my own fault. They had cones out at a few places but I didn't know what they were supposed to mean- what side you were supposed to go on or anything. So I just ran... and didn't really pay attention to them. My garmin ultimately said I went 3.04 miles in 29:52. The official time from the chip timing system was 29:51.
And I really need to work on the 2nd half of the 5ks. If I could just keep up what I do the first half, my time would be improved by a lot! So maybe I need to build up endurance, or do a better job of pacing myself early on so that I can speed up the 2nd half. Well, and this time, I have to admit, the entire way back I was wiping my nose on my sleeves and just really tired, so I walked quite a few times but mostly for short spurts. I don't know how much I can really blame on being sick.
Since Colleen was done first she took some pictures of me coming around the bend and across the finish line. I'm going to post the 4 pictures she took, even though I'm pretty far back in the first one.
I think if you click on it, it might show up bigger, but I'm in the back rounding the corner.
The girl behind me turned out to be in the same age group- so I'm glad I pushed at the end or I would have been one further back. (I finished 8th in my age group- not sure out of how many.)
I think sometimes when the camera snaps our body can look so funny!
(I'm thinking in particular about my legs in the above picture.)
About to cross the finish line.
Colleen got some good pictures for me! I guess that's the advantage of being slower. ;) I think it will be awhile before there's any chance I could do the same for her. She ended up coming in 3rd place in her age group AND crushing her personal record (PR). (I say crushing because I think she did it by a minute and that is really good, especially for how fast she's running right now.) I tried to take some pictures of her getting her award but I didn't do a very good job of that.
And here we are together, after the race. This picture looks a lot like the first one (from before the race)- with the way we're smiling and positioning our bodies.
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