October 6, 2012
I made a trip up to my hometown specifically to run this 5k. I attended CES which now goes by another name from my first grade year all the way to graduate from 8th grade (with the exception of my 7th grade year which I attended at another school in another town.) I am very proud to say that I was a CES Wildcat and I was very pleased to run in this 5k to represent my old grade school/junior high. I have many wonderful memories of going to school there. One of my eighth grade teachers still teaches there and I am glad to say I have her as a friend on my Facebook as well. :-) She teaches history and she is how I found out about this race. I immediately signed up and began training (sort of.....)
So....my youngest daughter and I made the three hour drive and planned on staying the whole weekend. I was super excited about this trip because not only did I get to run a 5k, I got to spend time with my besties. It's hard to live so far away from your best friends and I cherish every weekend I get to spend with them! We got there on Friday evening. I had to go to the school to pick up my race packet so while we were there, my daughter and I toured the school. The school that we toured was not the school I went to. In the many years (we won't say just how many) that have passed since I graduated eighth grade the school/church has moved and expanded. It's funny how even though this is not the building I attended in it was just like going back to the old school. The building had the same feel to it and the memories of my grade school years came flooding back. It was amazing and my daughter told me she wished she could go there. I wish she could too! After we left the school we went to one of my best friends' house where we would be staying for the weekend. We had a wonderful visit and we went out to eat where I made my second mistake. We went to the Longhorn Steakhouse....I think that's where we went. We had the homemade potato chips, oh so good! I had a salad and the bread (but not too much)....YUM YUM YUM!!! Then I had steak that was stuffed with cheese. Oh, it was all so good! I tried not to eat too much but I'm afraid I probably did (second mistake, first being I just didn't train hard enough). We then went back and talked for a while then went to bed since we had to get up early the next day for racing day!
My best friend and my other best friend's mother went to the race with us. It was super cold!!!! It was about 39 degrees!!!! COLD COLD COLD!!! This was the first opportunity I have had to try out my new cold weather running gear. I had bought a pair of full legged, warm running pants and a long sleeved top and had yet to try them out. This was the first opportunity I had and I was very pleased with them. While it was very cold out, I stayed warm with a jacket. I only wished I had warmer socks and that I had remembered to bring gloves and I wished I had a headband to cover my ears....oh, and I wished I had more tissues in my pocket! By the time I was done with the race, the one that I carried was full of holes and well, just plain used up!
So at the start of the race I was cold. We ran across the parking lot of the church through the grass and into a wooded area on a trail that was covered in wood chips. I would like to express now that I do NOT like to run on wood chips. They feel unstable and I felt like I was being careful so as not to trip over a tree root or something unexpected. While we were only on the wood chips a very short time I felt like it cut into my time. We next hit a concrete surface and my body and mind were very happy to be back on familiar (and stable) territory. I ran with a woman my age for a bit and we hit a wooden bridge. It was icy and I slipped and decided it was safest just to walk very fast and hold onto the railing. I did this for two bridges, more time lost. I pulled ahead of the lady I was running with after the bridges and rounded the half way point. By this time I was running with a twenty-something and we chatted for a bit as we were running along. This was her first 5k and she was afraid she had made a mistake in signing up for it. I assured her she was doing fine, especially when she ran on ahead and finished quite a bit ahead of me! The going got harder and I was back on the bridges again.....more lost time again as I didn't want to fall and bust my booty; I'm not as young as I used to be and while I can endure the embarrassment of falling, I'm not sure my body would be so happy at me falling, especially when it was so cold! I was also wearing out and I can't remember wanting to be done so bad! This made me sad because I had been looking forward to running this race for so long! I guess I should've been training harder and I should've been running out in the cold so I would be better prepared. Although, in my defense, this was the first time it had been this cold in a while. I was very tempted to do some walking but again, this feels like defeat to me and I kept it going even if it was more of a walk with a bounce. I came into the home stretch and I will confess, I wanted to do a full sprint home, but 1) the grass was wet and slippery and 2) I just couldn't get my body to respond to my brain's commands. How disappointing. :-(
Here are the details: I ran 3.13 miles and according to my Garmin my time was 33:28. According to the chip on my shoe my time was 33:08.....who's for going with the chip's time? Yes, yes, I think we will. LOL! My overall pace was 10:42 and it was super cold....39 degrees (that's in Fairenheit for those that it matters) and for the first mile I couldn't feel my feet! I placed 24th out of 65 and came in second for my age group....GO ME!!! My second post on the dailymile.com says that the race posted my time at 33:15 while my chip had me at 33:09 and my Garmin timed me at 33:20 something. I'm not unhappy with any of those times so we will just post them all and be content.
Overall, I'm disappointed in myself as I felt awful throughout the whole run. It was painful and even though I say I'm content with the time I felt I could have done better. My goal is to do a 5k in under 30 minutes so I better get to training because I just don't know when the next one will be!
Happy Running!
KEA
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