Dam Night Run 5k Part III

The race itself--well by now it's pretty much a blur, LOL! Carol and I lined up near the front so we didn't have the huge delay for the start line like those closer to the back. Oh, that's a major gripe I have about the race-it was chip timed but only at the finish line, there was no start line mat. I think Jackie and Debbie said they counted 9 seconds before they reached the start.

My feet were soooooooooo hot once we got started running and stayed that way for the first mile, yuck. Very uncomfortable. 7:20 for the first mile, 14:41 2nd mile, I only lost a second there, major improvement for me. Unlike the Brickfest I didn't have a bunch of women pass me between mile 2 and 3, YAY! I did lose some time mile 2 through the finish but it wasn't a huge amount and I continued to catch and pass a few people. AND no walk breaks for me this year. I did know that even if I had a 9 minute mile at this point (mile 2) I'd still finish under 25 minutes so had a little extra boost of confidence.

I was so surprised that I caught up to Curtis just before the water station because almost every race I ran last year I was behind him, could see him but couldn't muster up the speed to catch him. Did skip the water stop, I had such a good pace going so didn't want to slow for it and besides I was still carrying my water bottle if I did decide that I absolutely had to have a drink.
Yep, ran the entire 5k with the water bottle that you can see tucked under my arm in the pic from the previous post where I'm tweeting on the phone.

Since I was nearer the front this year I didn't have to view as many people on the sides puking and dry-heaving, whew. I'm getting better but usually the sight, sound, or smell of vomit causes me to almost join in, yucko.

Just before the finish line there's a near 180 degree turn at the bottom of the hill and boy can it cause some problems if you're not used to pivoting that way. Thanks to the drills I've been doing I was able to run through it without slowing a significant amount and powered on to the chutes. Surprisingly I was able to still add a sprint at this point, didn't want to be passed in the last few feet by another female like last year. Can't remember clearly but I do think that I passed a guy through here. Like I said, it was a blur.

I was so ecstatic when I got close to the timing clock and it was showing a time less than my previous 5k personal record of 23:56!!!!!!! Like I posted before the results show my official finish time as 23:26 but I was thinking that I'd done it in 23:46-48. So extra happy now! It will be tough to beat this one for a while though because there was so much downhill. Not that downhills are any easier on your body but once you figure out how to properly run without leaning back and essentially "braking", it feels like you can fly down.

Had that runner's high going afterwards!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!

　

Debbie and me with our age-group awards, a huge nylon tote sack that will come in very handy hauling race gear around.

I've already posted this but the first place female in my age group was in the top 3 Masters so I ended up getting the 1st place 40-44 age group award. Unfortunately I've fallen to 2nd place in the overall female masters in the year's Grand Prix points standings. The woman in first is just too darned fast, LOL!

The weight loss and resumption of speed workouts on the treadmill seems to be working, the past 2 races have gotten me out of the 25 minute range slump that I've been in for the past year. What I've learned though is that if I want to put in faster races (fast for me anyway!) I'm going to have to deal with the feeling of almost puking.............yuck.