Technical difficulties and DFL

September 8, 2012

It's racing day; it's racing day.  It's racing day; it's racing day.  It's not snowball chasing day!  Today's the day we race!  This is a song from the kids' show "The Back Yardigans" from the episode where they all have a big race.  It goes through my mind every time I run a 5k.  LOL!  So.....if you couldn't guess today was racing day!  It never gets easier to wake up early on a Saturday morning although I did try to go to bed early last night.  I felt a bit jittery this morning, as usual for a race.  We got to the race site (we could've walked we live so close) but I didn't feel like it.  In retrospect I probably should've so I would've been warmed up.  It was chilly today and my daughter was bundled up in a blanket.

It seemed to take a long time for the race to start.  I don't know if that was just prerace jitters or if they were running behind but it just seemed like time was moving very slow.  We started out by the Buena Vista bank and ran down to the high school.  We circled through the high school parking lot then came back to the Buena Vista bank (where we started) past it then down to the Gilster Mary Lee factory, turned and ran down to the main drag.  We ran down to the court house (familiar run for me).  When we reached the court house we turned and ran back the way we came and ended up back where we started at the Buena Vista bank.

This is pretty familiar territory for me.  Reading my past blogs you know I'm familiar with the run from my house to the court house.  What was really strange about this run is that I was running on the opposite side than what I normally run.  My normal run takes me from my house to Rte 3 up to State St to the court house then turn around and back again.  So I run on the side of the street that keeps me from having to cross too many streets.  The race came from the other direction so I was running on the opposite side of the street.  It felt uncomfortable.  It was like wearing a new pair of shoes; you know they are the right size and you like them but they aren't broken in yet.  Maybe I'm just trying to make excuses for my poor performance but it didn't feel right running on the other side of the road.

When we started out I was in the front to middle of the group.  It didn't take long for me to fall behind though although I didn't feel like I slowed down and my pace wasn't any slower than normal.  I guess I was just being passed.  About five minutes in my Garmin messed up for some reason and turned itself off.  I lost a bit of time (on the Garmin, I didn't stop running) so the numbers put up by my Garmin weren't accurate.  :-(  I felt like I was doing well, personally but apparently I wasn't.  It didn't take long for me to be far in the back.  Like I said, I didn't feel like I was slow; I guess everyone else was just faster than me.  The first part of the race felt good.  The hills didn't feel too bad but I knew what was coming up over by the court house so I wanted to save my energy for that.  By the time I got to that part of the race I was feeling it.  I guess I didn't train hard enough before the race because I ended up having to walk the hills.  I felt defeated by those stupid hills and what was worse was that I couldn't even pass the walkers!  UGH!!!!  This was a hard race for me and I was very disappointed in myself.

Today I tried out some new running shorts and a new shirt.  I LOVED them!  They were the shiny slick material and of course they were breast cancer awareness gear.  Breast cancer awareness/support and research is my chosen charity.  I will be running in this gear again.

Here's the numbers:  The race was a 5k so with my Garmin messing up I don't have the exact distance but a 5k is 3.1 miles so we're going with that.  It took me 34:44 (which at the time was a personal best).  My average pace was 10:42.  I came in 180th out of 205 and 7th out of ten in my age group.  My husband told me later that if I'd run just three minutes faster I would've come in 3rd in my age group.  Gee, thanks, Honey, LOL!  Incidentally he backed out of running so I won the challenge by default.  NOT how I wanted to win.  :-(

As I said, despite my personal best I am not happy with this race.  I am, however, humbled.  I don't know why I thought I would do better but it just showed me that I can't get cocky.  It also gave me the fire to train harder so that next year I will do better...and yes, I will do better next year.  My goal is to come in first in my age group.  GO ME!

Happy Running,

KEA