TOTR: Railroad Days 5k

Happy Tuesday! STILL without my Macbook--seriously Apple?! I dropped it off over 2 weeks ago for an "easy" fix. Go figure, right?

Anyway, now that my morning Power Hour classes are over for the summer, I can HOPEFULLY start getting back into a regular posting schedule. Who knew I'd miss blogging?

ANNNND because it's Tuesday, it means it's time for another edition of Tuesday's on the Run!

Today's a free topic so I'm going to talk about the race I did this past Saturday.

Saturday was one of my favorite races of the year--it's a local race and draws a pretty big crowd. It's been going on for 30+ years so people from all over come and check it out. And actually, a guy who is in his late 60's and consistently wins national track championships (AND STILL HITS 17 MINUTES ON HIS 5K!) always shows up so it's fun to watch. Basically, he's my life goal.

Anyway, I couldn't have asked for better weather for the race. Mid 60's and sunny.. just how I like it! It was an early start--8am--but I can appreciate that. That being said, I didn't pre-register and was totally running behind so I basically had to sprint back to my car after signing up and switch shoes/put on my bib/get ready. I counted that as my warm-up. ;) I hate being late for anything, especially a race, but I think that helped calm my nerves a bit.

Before the start of the race, there was a quick prayer and then we proceeded to do the Pledge of Allegiance--something I haven't done since grade school! I'm happy to report however that I still knew all of the words. Just for the record. ;)

Right at 8:15am, the gun went off and it was go time. I knew there was a girl in the field faster than me so my goal was to keep her in sight. She hadn't run a local race in a while so I wasn't sure how my time compared to her now but I figured if I kept her in range, I was doing pretty good.

Going into the first mile, I felt great. I was well rested, felt light on my feet, and knew I had a chance at doing pretty well. The girl in question and I stayed together the entire first mile. Our first split was 6:40 which is pretty quick but I didn't feel like I was struggling or anything so I kept at it.

The second mile is a big out and back and always feels like the longest part of the race. ALWAYS. Every year I dread it. Again, the girl in question and I were side by side the entire way. We were passing boys left and right and at one point, we started joking around wondering how the boys felt about being passed by not one girl but two. ;)

The mile 2 split came back somewhere in the 13 minute range so we were still crushing it pretty hard.

Mile 3 is when things started going downhill for me. Well, I didn't bonk out or anything but I definitely couldn't keep the same blistering pace we had been. I slowed down considerably. I went from running 6:53 on mile 2 to 7:05 on mile 3. Not BAD but not a sub 7.

The girl ended up getting about 15 seconds ahead of me but I kept my goal of keeping her in sight. I came across the line in 21:19--second overall female and a huge improvement over my time of 21:53 last year for the same race. I'm not sure what's gotten into me over the last month but I've had some killer 5k times. I've gotten closer and closer to that 21 minute mark. I'm not sure if I'll ever break it but heck, I didn't think I'd ever get sub 22 either.

So, no overall win but anytime you have a ridiculously good race, it makes up for it. :) I've been digging longer distance recently but I always appreciate a good 5k. Sprinting for 3+ miles always kind of puts you in your place, you know? By the time I crossed the finish line, I was SPENT.

I potentially have another race this Saturday but I haven't decided if I want to drop $30 for a 5k--seems little steep!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Sarah