I go back and forth trying to decide if this is even worth my time. Mostly I think I would rather just write in my journal. Certainly don't want to make my private thoughts public. But, do I write in my journal? No. Do I spend hours staring at my computer screen and typing inane emails that don't matter? Yes. So maybe this makes more sense.
Thinking about using this to enter my race reports, and put them here instead of on the relatively inactive forum where I normally publish them.
Last night ran a neighborhood 5k race. It was one of those Friday night races with a party afterward. This particular race benefits an organization that provides advocates for children in the legal system, and is sponsored mostly by local law firms.
The course is a double-loop of streets I run regularly, and the start/finish area is about a mile from my house. They don't give out age group awards, but rather glass beer steins to the first 25 men and women. Two years ago I finished 22nd and got one of those beer steins. It required me to just about run my heart out. Last year I started the race but gave up the effort when my first mile was over 8 minute pace. To get a beer mug as a woman, you pretty much have to run in the 25s, and that isn't going to happen if you can't break 8:00 in the first mile.
Last night I somehow talked Tommy into joining me, and we also arranged to meet up with our friend, Steve. So that made it more of a social thing for me. I was going to run hard, but finish the race no matter what, promise of a beer stein or no.
But...managed to position myself well at the race start so I could avoid running around a lot of people. Observed that the "fast" women I usually race against did not seem to be in attendance, and most of the other women there did not appear particularly fast.
Things seemed to work out well from the start, as I didn't have to jockey for position, and not too many people went whizzing by me. First mile time was 7:44. That was a nice surprise, just a few seconds slower than two years ago.
In the second mile, I concentrated on staying strong. I didn't sense that there were too many women ahead of me, and based on that first mile pace, I was pretty confident that I was going to get one of those beer steins. I was passed by one other woman, about my age, but that was it. Another woman, much younger, caught up to me and for awhile we ran side by side. I didn't notice much about her except that she appeared quite young and was wearing a gray cotton t-shirt.
My time was 8:12 for the second mile. The second mile is the hardest part of this race, because it is almost entirely uphill. So this amount of slow down was just about right. And in fact, it was 12 seconds faster than I had run this mile two years ago.
Right at that point, the girl in the gray cotton t-shirt dropped back, as if she suddenly ran out of steam. And from that point in the race (despite the presence of 330 other participants) I was really running all by myself.
The last mile is mostly down hill, except for the very end when you have to go uphill to finish. I was almost certain I would get a beer stein, but I was trying not to think too hard about that, and just kept telling myself that I was having a very good race and I should just keep going and finish strong.
My pace for the final mile was 7:47, ten seconds faster than two years ago. I kept pushing and pushing, really motoring to the end. I ran the last .1 in 46 seconds. That was two seconds faster than two years ago. I crossed the line in 24:29, gasping for air but not about to puke.
As I exited the chute, they told me that I was the 16th woman, and handed me my beer stein. Tommy found me, and I walked around for a bit, trying not to fall over. I have never felt quite so wiped out at the end of a race.
I recovered eventually (I would say, right about now, almost an entire day later). I feel good about how hard I ran and about not leaving much out there. I looked back over my race times, and realized that this was the fastest 5k I had run in three and a half years.
