30 November 2009

Great Duck Race 10k and Grand Prix is done!

November 28th marked the final race of the 2009 Arkansas RRCA Grand Prix series and it's brought about mixed feelings. First, I am so relieved it's over..........Second, I am so sad it's over...........It has been a grueling year trying to complete all 20 races in order to Iron the series this year, I've missed out on so many cycling events and races that I really wanted to do. The Big Dam Bridge 100 and the Sara Low 5k are two that I especially missed this year. Sad because I have made so many awesome friends this year that I'm probably not going to get to see most of until next January when the Grand Prix starts back.



Who knew that way back at the beginning of the year I would complete all 20 of the races, it had been a goal but with my job I knew that there was the very real possibility that I would miss a race or two due to being laid over at some point. Fortunately everything seemed to go mostly right and there were only a handful of races that I really, really had to hustle to make. Last Saturday just happened to be one because of the holiday week and a comedy of errors with the parts plants.



Anyway 132.8 miles and the one hour track run later, I am one of 12 Ironpeople this year!!!! Me, Jackie, Jennifer, Karen, Patti, Joe, Mike, Jeff, Eugene, Brice, John, and Jesse!!!!! Joe by the way has ironed the series for the past 5 years.....So am I going to try again next year? Probably not, there are more duathlons and cycling events that I'd like to do and to be honest I don't know if everything will work out as well with my work schedule to repeat it. But I will not rule it completely out, just waiting for all the different race schedules to come out at the moment.



So back to the Great Duck Race 10k at Stuttgart, AR :). First year for me to run this race but I am all too familiar with Stuttgart because that's where I went to truck driving school at, lol!!!!!! A good portion of the race route took me over roads that I'd driven multiple times both at the school and later when picking up at one of the plants in the area. It's billed as a completely flat race and as far as Arkansas goes it may be one of the flatter ones but there's still an invisible incline for the first 2-3 miles that's not noticeable in a motorized vehicle, lol. I'd rather have a hill I can see rather than one of those inclines........



Warmed up with Tala, Karen, Becky, and Joel, so lots of great conversation for the start of the day :). Not sure exact mileage but was over a mile.



Took off too fast as usual, 1st mile was under 8 minutes and my left foot as has been the case lately started hurting about 2.5 miles in :(. There was also a bit of a headwind for the first 4 miles but everybody said it wasn't as bad as previous years.



Garmin splits

Mile 1 7:37

Mile 2 8:04

Mile 3 8:30

Mile 4 8:21

Mile 5 8:20

Mile 6 8:22

Mile 6.2 1:53 (7:21 pace per mile)

Final chip time was 51:11 (garmin was 51:10) but no starting mat again :(

69/236 overall

18/121 females

2/15 40-44 age group



Good enough for 2nd in my age group and my 2nd fastest 10k time. If it wasn't for the left foot, I'm pretty sure I would have busted the Chile Pepper 10k time but with everything going on I'll take it. Oh forgot to mention that I'd only had 4ish hrs sleep beforehand because of the screwed up schedule. I'd ended up driving all the way up from south Texas on Friday and only had 5 hours sleep Thursday night so wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders to begin with. But enough whinging I suppose, lol!!!



So some shout-outs!! Karen got under 50 minutes, Becky had another 10k pr, Ethan placed 3rd overall, Charity toughed out yet another 10k on a bum knee (so proud of her!) and Leah set another female course record (woo-hoo!!!!!!!!). Jesse, Patti, Karen, and Jackie, can you believe it's finally over?!!!!!! Jesse and Kristen are some of the awesomest people you could ever hope to meet, just wish I'd gotten to know them sooner, Jennifer is mind blowingly fast and getting faster (and as TWB noted, quite a cutie!) And yeah, I know I'm getting all silly and emotional but you know what, I don't care, lol.... And I'm getting long-winded and have left people out so guess a friends only post needs to be written in the near future.

No comments: