Back in the Fast Lane

So apparently my fears of total and utter failure were unfounded.  I ran so hard I thought I was going to revisit my cheerio and banana breakfast.  I didn’t, of course.  That woud have just been gross.

But let me back up a bit.

Last night: I *tried* to get a good night of sleep but I was keyed up from my MCAT prax failure (which to anyone who gave me facebook compliments when I was fishing for them: Thanks!).  Plus, I still wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to do this.  Let’s face it, the race is a town event and I do not like 99.99% of the people in my town.  No desire whatsoever to socialize with them or relive stories from high school. I am so over that. I did try to read and relax in bed, however, and I did sleep pretty soundly, albeit it was hard to fall asleep.  Oh and my cell decided to let me know, via chirping at 5 am no less, that it was dying.  It was like, okay, I get it, just die already!

This morning: I got up around 730 to eat a bowl of cheerios with a banana before the 9 am race. This is only half of my usual breakfast so I packed the peanut butter and raisin english muffin to eat after the race.  No sense in eating a ton of food for a 5 mile race.  Good thing too, as I’ve already told you guys that my stomach wasn’t feeling it by the end of the race.

In any event, I arrived around 830 to register, get my t-shirt and warmup. The race was at the center of town recreation dept so I used the track to jog a mile then do 4 X 100m strides.  As I’ve never been any type of long distance racer in my adolescent / teenage years I still have no idea what kind of warm up to do for races around 10k. (As it stands for my 2 halfs and 1 full, I don’t really do any jogging before because, let’s face it, 13 or 26 miles is long enough thank you very much).

So the race itself (because that’s all that really matters): I found a girl that I ran with during my brief stints as a track runner in high school and we decided to just run how we felt and not push.  In the back of my mind, though, was a *yeahright* attitude because after paying for a race, I’m going to race.  So we took off and mile one was FAST.  6:40.  Ummmm, ok? Needless to say, the next mile was 7:34.  Still fast but much much closer to my ideal and predicted goal.

The next few miles were hard, more mentally than physically.  I’m not going to lie though, I always hurt during these short races.  My legs burn and my lungs do too.  I love it but only when it’s over.  Note: everyone that saw me running (old coaches, old teachers, people that I knew from high school) all told me that I looked great, even at the end.

At the 4 mile mark, one of the teachers of my high school (who is also the XC coach) told me that I was definitely in the top 10 female, which made me want to pick off as many runners as possible. Another note: that teacher is amazing despite the fact that I’ve never really known him.  I never did XC nor did I ever have him as a teacher.  He is that kind of person, one of the .01% in this town.

And before I knew it, I was at the finish.  Trying not to hurl.  And imensly proud of running as hard  as I did. And, man, I wish I could give you more details to the race itself, what I was thinking, the songs stuck in my head.  But I honestly don’t think I can.  The race just went by so. damn. fast.  Which is what happens when you run like me

As you can prolly guess, my finish was great.  My time was 35:32 or roughly 7:05 min/mi.  Pretty stellar considering I’ve just come off of a marathon and haven’t really incorporated speed into my routine.  Oh, and even though the results weren’t posted when I left, I’m pretty sure I was #5 female overall.  Woot!

My splits:

• Mile 1: 640
• Mile2: 14:14
• Mile 3: 21:28
• Mile 4: 28:40
• Mile 5: 35:32

Just by looking at the numbers I can tell that I didn’t run an even split race.  Not that I’m complaining because I’m very happy with how the race went.  Just something to keep in mind for the next time I race something around 10k distance.

And thanks for reading the novella, especially considering I don’t believe that much of it was the race itself! Have a safe fourth of July everyone!