Saturday, May 17, 2008

RACE REPORT: Lone Star 5000!

So I should mention that this race wasn’t chip timed. And that we were racing at 10:30am. Already two strikes against me going for that elusive 5k PR. Then add to the fact I just ran a I really tough mile and PR’ed. Well…challenges. I needed to get over all that quickly.

It was hot. I was wearing all black. I was lined up about 2 seconds back from the front runners. The field couldn’t have been larger then 300 runners. No one looked to be taking this seriously, so maybe this was going to be more of an interesting race than I thought. I did spot one other runner who was wearing two bibs like me (one under another). It felt good to be in the company of others as nutty as me.

The gun went off and off we went. I knew I would just have to pound this out. My legs felt remarkable well for what I did to them in the mile. I was able to run the first mile in 7:13. A little fast, but it felt really good. Mile 2 was the turnaround and I was so thirsty and missed the cups of water. And then we turned into the sun. I slowed down to 7:30. I was passing people like crazy still, but felt aweful for slowing down. The heat was getting to me.

Mile 3 I just bit my lip, put my head down and picked up my legs even more. We were all struggling at this point. I was running side by side by another triathlete and even drafted off another man for a little while. We rounded the corner and I saw 7:44 on my watch. This was it…I was going to PR! Just the straight-away to the finish! .47 seconds! I slowed down a lot here I felt, but I was pretty much giving everything I had left.

I crossed the finish and Ash saw me and was cheering for me. Turns out I was in the top 10 females to finish. Wow, this must have been a small race! I got a baseball hat as my prize and a smile, then a cupcake and an orange slice. Good stuff. Then we went to go eat afterwards and get me out of the sun. Overall, a great race. 23:16. Almost a minute PR over two years ago. Can’t wait to beat that one again though!


The STATS:
5k
23:16 total

7:13, 7:30, 7:44, .47
Heart-rate: n/a
Weather: hot. Maybe mid 80s?

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