Sara Low 5k

This was the 2nd year for the Sara Low Memorial 5k in Batesville. I ran (well, had to walk some of it) it last year. This is a very challenging course, right at the start you have a steep downhill, followed by a steep uphill and guess what, even more hills. This is the most difficult 5k course that I've ever run--of course, I'm still a fairly new runner and have only ran races in the central Arkansas area, but I still think it would be challenging by anybody's standards. Beautiful opening ceremony, great weather for a race, free pre- and post-race massages, beautiful technical t-shirt and it's for a great cause memorializing Sara Low.

It was chilly at the start, it seems like we went from sweltering to cool all at once thanks to Hurricane Gustav but it was very nice to not feel like you're going to drop over from the heat before running. That said, while I like slightly cooler temps for workouts, I am NOT a cold weather person. I'm dreading the fall/winter and the shorter daytime hours. Last night it was almost to dark to see at 1930 while we were playing disc golf.

I started up near the front with Carol and her daughter but I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to keep with her because of the glute/hamstring issues I'd been having this week. First mile was in 8:05, 2nd mile was in 15:40, and then I started feeling sick to my stomach plus the left leg started aching so had to back off for the 3rd mile. There is one hard turnaround point before starting back up another hill that seemed endless but I was able to keep running, albeit slowly, LOL. The turnaround is hard on my legs but it is nice being able to see people and shout encouragement at each other!! The last 1/2 mile me and a 16 year old girl kept leapfrogging but she had a little more kick at the end than I did so she finished 2 seconds ahead of me. Carol had an awesome time of 24:53 and finished 5 spots ahead of me. Neither one of us got an age group award though, she was 4th and I was 5th. Rock from the Cabot Cruisers finished 4th female overall with a time of 22:15, isn't that amazing?!!

My time was 25:29--an improvement of 4:10 from last year. Placement was 63/180 overall, 21/107 females, 5th in my age group. I'm stuck in the mid 25 minute range right now, I need to start some speed workouts as soon as the left leg issue clears up.

The overall winner was a female this year!!! With a time of 17:38, WOW!!!!!!!! There was a guy in the lead but either they didn't have somebody out directing them to the finish line or he misunderstood but either way it was enough for Leah to grab the lead and she finished 5 seconds ahead of him. That's incredible..........

On the way home we stopped at Bald Knob to grab James' things from his truck and I decided to move mine over next to where he was parked. There were a group of guys standing around talking and evidently they liked how I looked in my running gear 'cause I got several whistles and when I didn't acknowledge that one of them got in his truck and blew the air horn. That always aggravates the hell out of me because you usually have people trying to sleep. In my not so humble opinion, I think the air horn should be reserved for emergency use only in parking lots. The only thing worse is some jerk with a train horn trying to wake everybody up because he thinks it's funny. Anyway, got backed in next to James and one of these guys decides to walk over to talk, at least until he saw James. He changed his mind real quick, my hubby is an intimidating looking guy, LOL!!