This brings me to the race......it was the first annual Frozen Feet 5k in Conway, AR and while the weather didn't quite cooperate with the race name it was certainly kind of nice to not be freezing while standing around waiting on start time. It was slightly humid but the sun stayed behind the clouds so that kept the temperature down to a manageable level. Since it was a spur of the moment kind of decision I hadn't looked up any race info until we were on our way over and it was a bit of sticker shock to find out the registration was $30, fairly steep for a 5k. We didn't get any shirts that morning but they did say they would send them to us, the junior auxiliary was trying not to have any overages which I can't blame them for and while I'm not necessarily wanting to add to my collection I do want a shirt for that price!
The course ended up being a familiar one since they used the Women Can Run 5k route! Can't say I blame them since it is already marked and all but darn it those 13 turns are a pain in the arse especially when you are trying to shave off as much time as possible. As usual there was a jackrabbit start but I just let them go and did my own pace since I was fairly sure the super quick start would catch up to most of them within the first mile. Just settled in and started reeling people in, listening to their labored breathing as I did so. It ended up being a smaller race and I was able to keep track of where I was at and where Speedy Girl was at--I know I could never keep up with her but was wanting to know where her position was at because I knew she would be either 1st or 2nd female overall.
As the first 2 miles clicked by I was feeling strong and while I was working hard I wasn't in the state that most people around me were judging by their breathing. It was just after mile 2 that I started feeling my right shoe lace starting to loosen up--the shoes I was wearing are bad about coming untied but I had triple-knotted them prior to the race but evidently it wasn't enough, I kept running on but it got loose enough that I had to stop and re-tie it with 4/10 of a mile left to go, and two girls and a guy that I'd passed zoomed by me. Unfortunately it was the shoe that I'd attached the chip to and I had no choice but to stop, visions of the shoe flying off into someone's yard and having to chase it down was haunting me lol.
So a very quick stop to lace a shoe and then I was up and after the trio, no way was I gonna let them finish ahead of me! I do think it surprised them that I caught up and passed so quickly but I was on a mission and I was highly peeved at myself and my shoes........it was at this point that the finish line clock came into sight and I saw the seconds in the 40s clicking down (up?) and heard Speedy Girl yelling at me that I was 3rd female so I managed to find another burst of speed and pushed on as hard as possible because no way did I want that to turn over into the next minute! Talk about hitting the puke zone, ugh.
My previous 5k pr of 23:20 was set back in 2009 and the Women Can Run race on the same course back in the spring was 23:53 so I was hoping for a sub 23 best case scenario.........my official chip time Saturday was 21:50, a personal record of 1:30!!!!!!!!!!!! I never dreamed I could hit sub 22, it is still mind-boggling that I did it and that's with losing 10-15 seconds because of the damn shoe lace. My splits for the first 2 miles were fairly even (6:56 and 6:54), mile 3 would have been close to the same--there's a huge spike upward in the graph from my garmin. And yes, I placed 3rd overall female which was a minute and one second behind S.G. who took 2nd. I am extremely appreciative of her sharing her training and schedule with me because it kept me pushing hard when I had no reason to do so and certainly toughened me up mentally.
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