“A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they’re capable of understanding.” -Steve Prefontaine
Friday, July 4th, I woke up early to get ready for my race that was supposed to start at 8am. The race was 45 min away, so we planned on leaving by 6:30 to have ample time to register and warm up. We got to the race and as I was preparing I thought it might be a good idea to know the race course. Due to flooding and mud slides in the park, the course had changed. We weren't going to run through the park as planned, we were doing a real out and back. Since the course wasn't going through the park anymore, the turnaround point was extended to where we had to run along a highway for about 0.1 mi. Agh! I'd never run this race in the first place. Now I have to run along the highway. I hope it's not too busy!!
I warmed up and 10 min before the start I decided it might be a good idea to visit the ladies' room. Well, I guess all the other ladies had this same idea because the line was super long. And there was only one restroom! I was glad to be a woman at this point though because the men's line was a lot longer & I heard a group of five boys saying they didn't just have to pee.
I made it to the start with a few minutes to spare. The race director gave the directions of the new course and we were off.
Mile 1 - I felt really good in this mile, but I was a little nervous that I was going too fast. I was being passed by a lot of runners, but they were mostly the 3 milers. I focused on two men in front of me that I knew were running the 10 mile race. I finished the fist mile in 8:15.42.
Mile 2 - This mile I really wanted to pass the two men in front of me, but I wouldn't let myself. I knew they were keeping a good pace, so just followed them a little farther. 8:14.02.
Mile 3 - This mile had the first a several rolling hills. At the top of one of the hills I saw a huge dog. I asked the men in front of me to protect me from it. "I'm afraid of dogs that are bigger than I am," I informed them. "That one is about one and a half of you," said Richard. The dog kept its distance. 8:24.88.
Miles 4 & 5 - I finally passed the two men and started working on moving up in the pack. At this point I felt pretty lonely being in between the runners, so I was grateful that I had Click & Clack the Tappet brothers to listen to during these miles. Around mile 4.5 I saw the lead runner going back home. 8:13.69 & 8:16.43.
Mile 6 - I turned around to start heading back to the finish! At this point I had moved up to the next runners and passed one of them around 6.5. It was also pretty cool to see & encourage everyone as we passed each other. 8:21.20
Miles 7, 8, & 9 - These miles seemed to run together. I didn't see the dog on the way back, which was awesome. One man in front of me kept running then walking. I would almost pass him when he was walking then he'd start running again. On his last walk he said "I think I bit off more than I can chew on this one" as I passed him. I passed two other people with about a mile left in the race. 8:21.05, 8:17.75, & 8:33.94.
10 - I felt okay at this point. I was pretty tired, but I didn't want anyone to pass me. Well, one man did pass me with about 0.5 mile left. He encouraged me to keep going and not slow down as he passed me. I tried to keep him pretty close thinking I could possible catch up at the end. At the final turn (see pic, left), he was about 50 ft in front of me. So I started running as hard as I could to catch up to him. And I did. I passed him, then he started 
to kick it and he ended up beating me by this [ .... ] much (see pic, right). The last mile was my fastest at 8:00.06
This race was a lot of fun & I ended up finishing in 1:22:57. I placed 19/35 overall, 4/11 women, 1 age group and got this awesome medal:
Friday, July 4th, I woke up early to get ready for my race that was supposed to start at 8am. The race was 45 min away, so we planned on leaving by 6:30 to have ample time to register and warm up. We got to the race and as I was preparing I thought it might be a good idea to know the race course. Due to flooding and mud slides in the park, the course had changed. We weren't going to run through the park as planned, we were doing a real out and back. Since the course wasn't going through the park anymore, the turnaround point was extended to where we had to run along a highway for about 0.1 mi. Agh! I'd never run this race in the first place. Now I have to run along the highway. I hope it's not too busy!!
I warmed up and 10 min before the start I decided it might be a good idea to visit the ladies' room. Well, I guess all the other ladies had this same idea because the line was super long. And there was only one restroom! I was glad to be a woman at this point though because the men's line was a lot longer & I heard a group of five boys saying they didn't just have to pee.
I made it to the start with a few minutes to spare. The race director gave the directions of the new course and we were off.
Mile 1 - I felt really good in this mile, but I was a little nervous that I was going too fast. I was being passed by a lot of runners, but they were mostly the 3 milers. I focused on two men in front of me that I knew were running the 10 mile race. I finished the fist mile in 8:15.42.
Mile 2 - This mile I really wanted to pass the two men in front of me, but I wouldn't let myself. I knew they were keeping a good pace, so just followed them a little farther. 8:14.02.
Mile 3 - This mile had the first a several rolling hills. At the top of one of the hills I saw a huge dog. I asked the men in front of me to protect me from it. "I'm afraid of dogs that are bigger than I am," I informed them. "That one is about one and a half of you," said Richard. The dog kept its distance. 8:24.88.
Miles 4 & 5 - I finally passed the two men and started working on moving up in the pack. At this point I felt pretty lonely being in between the runners, so I was grateful that I had Click & Clack the Tappet brothers to listen to during these miles. Around mile 4.5 I saw the lead runner going back home. 8:13.69 & 8:16.43.
Mile 6 - I turned around to start heading back to the finish! At this point I had moved up to the next runners and passed one of them around 6.5. It was also pretty cool to see & encourage everyone as we passed each other. 8:21.20
Miles 7, 8, & 9 - These miles seemed to run together. I didn't see the dog on the way back, which was awesome. One man in front of me kept running then walking. I would almost pass him when he was walking then he'd start running again. On his last walk he said "I think I bit off more than I can chew on this one" as I passed him. I passed two other people with about a mile left in the race. 8:21.05, 8:17.75, & 8:33.94.
10 - I felt okay at this point. I was pretty tired, but I didn't want anyone to pass me. Well, one man did pass me with about 0.5 mile left. He encouraged me to keep going and not slow down as he passed me. I tried to keep him pretty close thinking I could possible catch up at the end. At the final turn (see pic, left), he was about 50 ft in front of me. So I started running as hard as I could to catch up to him. And I did. I passed him, then he started 
to kick it and he ended up beating me by this [ .... ] much (see pic, right). The last mile was my fastest at 8:00.06This race was a lot of fun & I ended up finishing in 1:22:57. I placed 19/35 overall, 4/11 women, 1 age group and got this awesome medal:
M - 4 mi, 35:22.18
W - 4 mi, 34:34.07
F - speedwork, 18x0.1mi (0.1 mi walk between). I did this on the treadmill with 0.5 mi warmup and cooldowns at 6 mph, the walks at 3 mph, and most of the sprints at 10 mph. The last four were faster at 11, 11.5, 12, and 12.5 mph.
1 comment:
I like the addition of the photos to your blog. Hope to see you in November (1/2 marathon).
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