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June 17, 2005
A Little Bit Carried Away
OK, so I got a little bit carried away last night. Nothing too bad, but a little more excited about putting on a number than I should have been. It's been a long time and heading into it, I was pretty nervous. Excited, with hardly any expectations, but nervous. The one thing that was making me more nervous is that there is prize money at this race and I need the money right now.
Anyhow, I got to the race-an adventure in itself. As I said yesterday, I didn't get to go to this race last year. It is on an old estate. Not an ostentatious estate, like Alison saw on her run the other day-this family has lots of old money that they live off, and lots of estates in the area. When they need some money, they simply sell off some of their land. Must be nice. The adventure is that it is kind of in an out of the way location. There also usually is not a sign on the property-they like their privacy.
I got there and found some of the folks I run with and did most of the course for a warm-up. Whoo boy, it is not a PR course at all. The first mile is a screaming downhill, just before the mile marker there is a turn on a cone to head back up that hill. Instead of going left, back towards the start, you turn right and run down a slight down out to the main road and make another turn on a cone. Just past that turn in the two mile marker. Now you run straight back up the slight uphill, past the finish line, up more of the hill and make yet another turn on a cone to head back slightly downhill into the finish. So lots of hills and three turns on cones equals a not fast course!
The weather was much better last night than it has been recently. Shortly before the race there were a bunch of storms that rolled through, but it was still on the warm side. I got my racing outfit and shoes, wow it had been a long time! I headed up to the starting line, close to the mansion. Hanging out up there I saw L show up and knew that she would win. I have beaten her and usually run about the same times, but she has been racing tons lately and knows how to race a 5K right now while I am pretty much out of sorts on short racing.
We started out and sure enough the usual suspects went out way too fast. I held back on that first screaming downhill mile, and still hit it in 5:50. This is a real testament to holding back because I could have very easily gone through the mile in around 5:25. I was closing on most of the usual suspects who went out so fast going up the hill and caught them by the two mile mark. I think that my two mile split was something like 12:10, but the guy calling out splits was only calling out the seconds, not the minutes. At this point I was in third overall and second among the women. Just before the three mile marker, R, who has been training with us and has had a goal of getting under 20 kicked like crazy and passed me. I decided that I had been running too hard and didn't go with him, I had second locked up and that was good enough for me. I ended up finishing in 19:43 which made me very happy on this course.
L and I warmed down for 23 minutes and then retrieved our awards. I won $75 which is a great help considering my financial situation at this point. I also got a lot of confidence for the race that I am planning on doing tomorrow. I usually won't run on Friday, but I think that given how late the race was last night that a 2 mile jog and stretching session may be warranted.
Hope that everyone has a great weekend!
Posted by Blondie at June 17, 2005 09:20 AM
Comments
Congratulations!!!
Posted by: Nanda at June 17, 2005 10:59 AM
Congrats on your race and prize money! Sounds like fun to run a race through an "estate". Hope you have a good weekend...
Posted by: Beth at June 17, 2005 09:00 PM
hey...congratulations! you sound so happy! what a good run!
Posted by: Audrey at June 18, 2005 03:05 PM