Catching up!!

Things have been sort of a whirlwind the last several days so we will just start at the top.

Race One Saturday AM-5K
I met up with my ladies MT & BH and headed over together to the Old Oak 5K Race which was part of our road races series, out on the other side of town. We arrived with plenty of time and it was warming up fast! Woohoo, I was excited about running in shorts and a tank top. I went for about a mile and a half warm up with MT and we discussed race strategies.

With the bell we were off. There were two girls in front of me, one of which I knew I would probably never catch as she always beats me. She passed the other female leader about 0.75 in and I tried to hang. Mile 1 was 6:15 and I already felt like I was fading. We entered into the fairgrounds for a few turns and I kept alternating between times I felt strong and times I was pretty exhausted. I hit mile 2 and glanced down at my watch which had not picked up the split for some reason. Bummer, this bugs me! I keep the leader female in sight as we head back the last 2 roads. The only little uphill comes about 0.5 before the end and although it was not big, I was certainly feeling it. I was pretty tired as I tried to pick up the pace at the end. I have no idea how close anyone is behind me and I managed to pick it up enough to pick off two guys.

As I crossed the finish line with a time of 20:28 (not by much, but a new PR ~6:35 pace) I tried to catch my breath. The coughing started and I was excited to see MT come in right behind me. She has been right there every race and claimed 3rd overall female. I picked up my cool little 1st place age group coffee mug and headed over to Panera with MT and BH to meet ESpeed and TriSaraTops. It was a gorgeous day to sit outside and 5 dedicated chicks who love running definitely makes for some good animated conversation. :-)

The rest of the day consisted of running around on the motorcycles to visit my snowbird grandparents that just came back, order carpet, hit the bank, eat, go to the store...I crashed after having a few beers pretty early that night!

Sunday I awoke for Race Two!
I headed downtown bright and early for my first 10K race of the season. MT and I again regrouped for a scenic warm up run over from the west bank of the Flats over to the East Side to check out all the construction. Maybe the flats will make a resurgence some time again! I could already tell my legs were definitely not feeling very fresh this morning, but without any real goal I was just going to see what I could do.

With the bell I was off. The 5 K and the 10K started together and it was tough to know who was racing what. There was 2 girls in front of me at mile 1 which I crossed at 6:28. Hmmm, well perhaps I want to slow down a bit to make sure I can finish strong. At the 1.5 mile mark, one of the leading female turned back at the 5K turnaround. Sweet, now I am in second. The other female that I had never met before really started turning on the heat and pulling away just totally kicked butt that race comng in 6th overall before a lot of the fast guys.

I was just kind of running a comfortable race and passed mile 2 at 7:09...not so bad. Just before mile the end of mile 3, there was a mean uphill. It was long a few people around me started walking. It was grueling but I shortened my stride and kept a pretty even turnover and hit the turnaround for the downhill. Mile 3, 7:33. I was feeling pretty relaxed at this point and was passed by another female, but I was not worried because I was saving some for the end. Mile 4 7:18. As I plugged along I started wondering where the heck mile 5 was. Also being an out and back course, I was wondering how it was possible that it appears I am coming around to the end of the course already. I was all sorts of confused as I tried to pick it up a bit at the end which had sprung up on me.

I finished in 39:25, 3rd overall female, 1st in my age group. I was definitely perplexed by this time and the non-existant 5th mile marker and with some conversation I learned a big barge had come through and although the RD had called to make sure the bridges were not supposed to go up, they did. So the course was rerouted in the middle of the race and it was short. I give the RD a lot of credit b/c I know they were working hard to try to do what they could here, although it really impacted the 5K race. After some fun conversation and awards, I rushed home to fly out to Chicago for some more running....to be continued!