Mid-Year Muse & Motion 5K Race Report

“I'm going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race.” - Johnny Gray

Okay, I'm finally getting around to this race report (and I'm not too worried about the anonymity stuff that much anymore*). Last weekend my hubby & I went to visit my family. My brother & I signed up for a local race to run early Saturday morning. I was pretty excited because I thought I had a chance at beating jon. Our PR's for the 5K were about a second apart, so it wasn't unrealistic to think I could take him.
At around 6:15 jon came to my parents to pick Ben & me up for the race. On our way to the location we listened to some good music which included songs from a movie I had recently watched. We arrived at the race site, registered, and then stood around for a while waiting for the race to start. I was pretty much the coolest person at the race when Kelly Clarkson came on the radio. I used to work with her, you know?
jon & I decided we needed to warm up a little bit, so we jogged around the park while Ben took some pics of us. Finally the race was about to begin, so we lined up at the start. We listened to the almost incomprehensible directions given by the race director in his thick accent. The chairperson for the group the race was benefiting sounded the fog horn and we were off. I later learned that the timing crew was not ready for the start, so our times had to be adjusted at the end of the race.
In the first mile I kept my brother in my sites. I felt good, but I definitely didn't want to pass him. I didn't want to get too burnt out at the start. We ran around the park for this first part of the race and much to my chagrin I ran a 6:39 first mile. That was waaaay too fast. This seems to be a common problem that I have.
About a quarter mile into the second mile we turned off the loop in the park and headed into a "foresty" part of the park. This is what I'll call the out & back portion of the race. We kept running & I finally saw the leader heading back on that path. I could still see jon ahead of me too, but by this time I had given up on beating him. I was feeling that first mile & it wasn't good. jon & his group turned a corner to get out of my sight then came back about 30 seconds later. He saw me and told me it wasn't too far from the turn around. That was good news. My second mile was 7:38.
I really wanted to slow down on the way back to the loop portion of the race, but I couldn't let the other runners I was passing see me suffer. So I plodded on. I may have been able to see my brother at this point, but I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. There was a man who would walk a few seconds and then start running again in front of me. That's what I was focusing on. I wanted to beat him. I came out of the forest to complete the loop to the finish line. I finished the third mile in 7:43.
Now for the last tenth of a mile. I could see the finish line & I really wanted to catch the guy that had been walking in front of me. I picked up the pace on the curve around the parking lot and then on the straightaway to the finish I really kicked it. I finished this in 37 s, but I didn't catch that guy. After I got out of the chute, the incoherent race director commented on how great my finish was. This I understood because he was giving me a compliment.
All in all this was a good race. jon finished in 21:30 (a PR!) and I finished in 22:35 (a certified race PR!). I think a local race with my brother will have to be a staple in my visits to the fam. I wonder what my mom would think about the Turkey Trot when we visit at Thanksgiving?

past two weeks in training:
S (6/22) - 8 mi, 1:08:06.44
M - 3 mi, 24:56.43
T - 3 mi, 23:58.71
S - Mid-Year Muse & Motion 5K - 22:35
M (6/30) - 3 mi, 24:15.32
T - speedwork, 4x1600 (400 jog between)
0.5 mi warmup-5:05.40
1-7:13.00 (2:30.13 rest)
2-7:13.68 (2:29.00 rest)
3-7:13.52 (2:30.61 rest)
4-7:03.76
0.25 mi cooldown-2:29.86
W - 3 mi, 25:10.17
Th - 1 mi w/one of my coworkers that's just starting running, 10:48.98
F - Firecracker Runs, race report next week!! 10 mi, 1:22:58
S - 6 mi, 57:53.05

* - it's not hard to figure out info about me when I put the name of the races and my time in my blog posts.