Valentine's Day 5k

Me, Andy, and Abigail before the torturefest

I'm the one in red, ha-ha!!

Ow, I hurt, hurt, hurt. Not enough speed workouts lately and my last 5k was way back in October. A 5k is something you really have to work at if you're wanting to race it. Slightly chilly this morning, approx 40F but windy and boy did that wind have a bite to it. I had to go back and get my gloves even though I knew I would be shucking them off before a 1/4 of a mile in. We had a lot of Cruisers today! Jackie and family, Annette and Arland, Bailey, Jane, Russ, Eugene, and several others. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit as much beforehand as what I would have liked. Mike was there and without James there to keep him company I felt weird about leaving him standing alone most of the time.

Since I have a habit of lining up further back than what I should, I decided to push it and move up closer to the front. Actually ended up kind of next to Bailey who was with Caitlyn and I joked with Bailey that she couldn't lolly-gag around if she was going to start with her (C. is very fast!). Well guess what?!!! Bailey kicked some major butt today!!!!!!!!! I'm so proud of her, I think she has the capability of being one of the faster women in the Grand Prix and today definitely proved it. She passed me like I was standing still around mile 2, woo-hoo! It was all I could do to keep her pink shirt in sight for just a little while.

Oh, back to the lining up closer. Kind of a mistake today because of the narrow trails (it's on the Bona Dea Trails). I got a very hard elbow into my left arm just after the start. I was knocked sideways and backwards a little which caused me to hit some guy just behind me. I'm trying to recover from the hit and I hear this "oof", I doubt if that person reads my blog but I'm really, really sorry. Wasn't a whole lot I could do about it though since my hitting/kicking him was the result of me being elbowed. The men get VERY aggressive sometimes so I guess it's a little further to the back for me 'cause I sure don't like getting shoved around. That's one reason why I will probably never do a triathlon, I've heard that you get really beat up on the swim portion. Well, that and I can't swim very well, plus the claustrophobia issue.

Another issue I had this morning was the later start--the race started at 9 a.m. While I loved not having to get up at 4 a.m. in order to eat, get around, and drive approx. 2 hours, it kind of played havoc with my nutrition/fuel. I ate an egg mcmuffin (no meat, no cheese) and had a 1/2 cup of coffee around 6 a.m. and while this usually works perfect for me on race morning today it was a little too long between eating and working out. I was starting to get a tad bit hungry right at 9, don't know why I didn't think to grab a gel beforehand. I'm hypoglycemic and try to eat something about every 3 hrs so I don't get shaky (at 4 hrs I turn into a stark raving mad full-on bitch) but just didn't time this one right. Had my mind stuck on an 8 a.m. start I guess.

Ok, the race itself--I was miserable, started out slightly too fast (I'm out of practice!). Don't know what my mile splits were because I didn't wear my garmin and there were no time-keepers at the mile-markers. Just know that I slowed down quite a bit on miles 2 and 3 and had very little kick left at the end. Felt like my lungs and heart was going to explode out of my chest! I hit the finish line at 24:55 but didn't get my tear-off handed in until 24:57. A little disappointed in my time, was hoping to finish closer to 24 than 25 today but I had nothing left so it's not a race where I'm like I could have done this or this faster. I left it all out there today and that's all you can do.

There was a snafu with the awards ceremony, I guess the girls rushed it a bit and got several people put in the wrong place. For example, I was called out as 2nd in my age group but was actually 3rd because the woman who placed 2nd was erroneously listed as 2nd female overall when she wasn't. Too bad, the 2nd place age group trophies were extremely cute! I didn't know it until Jackie realized that the person called out as 3rd finished behind her. She went up to let them know then came back and told me about the other woman that should've gotten the trophy. So I went back up with the award and explained what happened, my info was taken down and it was noted that I returned the trophy so hopefully it will get to its rightful owner. Whew, did you get all that? I think something similar happened with part of the guys' age groups too.

Final stats (I think!)--I was 33/150 female runners and 3/24 in the 35-39 female age group. This will be my last race in that age group by the way. Oh, and Patti told me she had a p.r. today, way to go girl!!!!

Afterwards, went to my sis' house because she baked me a cake!! It was delicious.......and very rich, yum. Got a birthday spanking from my niece (and a pinch to grow on). Well, Abigail only made it to 20 swats but hey it was still cute. My nephew is getting to the age where he doesn't want to be hugged on, at least until I leaned over to hug him anyway and told him that he smelled good, he smelled like gasoline and motorcycle (he had been riding his dirt bike). That got me a huge grin and big hug. All in all a good day even if I didn't get to share it with James (he's on his way to Laredo).