Sunday was crazy cold--18 degrees with a wind chill of nine at race time. The sun was shining though, so that seemed to help some. I didn't warm up very long pre-race, choosing to hang with Steph instead. I question whether my short warm up hindered me, but I am happy with the choice I made. The good thing I did do was to make sure I started at the front of the field. There were supposed to be more than 1,000 runners there and I didn't want to have to weave in and out of a lot of people. So after a good luck hug from Steph, I made my way to the front of the pack. My goal for the morning was to run sub 24.
The horn blew and we were off. I tried to gauge how fast the runners were around me and who I should try to pace off of but it was hard. I just tried to concentrate on finding a pace, rhythm that was comfortably hard for me. I found a good stride and just focused on moving forward. Within no time we hit the water table at .5 mile, I still felt really good and pushed on. The race was really fun for me in that I knew volunteers at almost every intersection, and having them cheer kept me smiling even it when my legs started to hurt. At the one mile mark, it was hard not to look at my watch, but I wanted to run the entire race on feel and see what I could do. It felt like forever from mile one to the turn around.
I made the turn and started heading back. I started feeling very fatigued, but told myself to look forward to seeing everyone I knew on the way back. I passed Steven and he told me I was in 7th place for the women. I knew I had to keep pushing. At the two mile marker I wanted to stop and walk so badly because I was just tuckered out but I knew I was sitting in a good spot. It was about then I came up on Lauren and Matt. Lauren began yelling for me just like she did at Louisville. For the moments I heard her, my legs felt incredibly light. Matt even grabbed my arms and "escorted" me for a few meters. It's so awesome to have cheerleaders along the race course!
I made the left turn to head back over the highway and a girl passed me. I tried to push to stay with her, but couldn't hold on to her. After that it seemed like just a snap to .5 mile to go mark. Once I saw that I knew I could keep going. After the highway I made the right to the finishing straight and another woman came up along side of me. There was about 400 meters left and I tried to stay with her--that only lasted for about 50 meters and I couldn't push any harder. I saw the clock at that point and realized that it was at 22 minutes and just focused on finishing out. My time was 22:41. I ended up 2nd in my age group (56 in AG), 9th in women and 31st over all (846 racers). My splits were pretty consistent, 7:20, 7:24, 7:25 and 7:00 for the .1. I'm amazed at how I did. I would have never thought I could maintain a sub 7:30 pace that long. I'm incredibly happy with my results
Sunday afternoon I looked up my last 5K time from October, 2008, it was 25:02 and at that time, it was my PR. I've come a long way in less than four years, especially considering I haven't been focusing on the run at all. I have another 5K coming up in two weeks, I'm hoping I can sustain my success through it!
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