Northshore 5K race report

I signed up for this one forever ago at the insistence of my husband, who works in the city where it's run. The course is a very pretty, hilly residential course, and it's run in conjunction with a half-marathon. This was definitely bigger than the first 5k I ran, and it was cool to note the differences between a smaller race and a decent sized one (although still far from huge).

After running my last race solo, I really wanted my husband at least to come to this one with me, but because it started at 7:15 and was a 35 minute drive from home, bringing the whole crew seemed a bit ridiculous. After much deliberation and discussion, we decided that my oldest daughter would have her first real chance at babysitting. She set her alarm and got everyone up and was just finishing breakfast when we came home - everything there went off without a hitch. (YAY!!! She did a great job...I was so proud of her!)

It was almost unnecessary, though, since my husband forgot to actually TURN ON the alarm he set (note to self - GET YOUR OWN DAMN ALARM CLOCK!!) and we woke up with 10 minutes to get out the door. Nice. But we made it, and I was good-natured about it, and he got us there in plenty of time. I had a banana and some coffee on the way, he dropped me and parked the car, and we still had time to watch the start of the half (they started 15 minutes prior to the 5k). This race was timed with a b-tag, so you had to run over a mat which started your official time. This was another first for me, one which would bite me in the ass later when I forgot about it.
(here's me prior to the start)

I lined up in the middle of the pack, towards the side so my own personal photog could get a couple pictures...

I was pretty prepped for a hilly course, and tried to start out conservatively (even for a slowpoke like me) but I am learning that that's tougher than you'd think in a race (especially when most people are running faster than you). I was just aiming to better my last 5k time of 33:29, but with the hills, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to. So basically, have fun, don't crap out halfway, and maybe get a PR out of the deal.

The first mile was nice and easy, and I was feeling pretty good. The weather was humid and misting, but cool, which was fantastic since they'd been predicting HOT. I got to the first hill and it was super steep downhill, and I knew that I had to go back up. The first aid station was right at the top, which was perfect. I got a quick drink and then kept on.

I was staying really steady, about a 10:40 pace, which was great, considering that the rest was rolling hills too. I kept thinking that surely, THIS was the last one, and another would come. They weren't steep like that first one, but I was having trouble recovering after a bit. At mile 2, I looked at the digital clock (COMPLETELY forgetting about the whole b-tag thing) and was fairly sure that a PR was not for me, so I crapped out. I walked a couple times that last mile, (my husband managed to take a picture of me walking (BUSTED) because I was almost at the end and didn't realize it! DAMN!) but had some gas left and picked up the pace on the way across the finish line.

I crossed the line at 34 and change, which is about what I expected from the mile 2 split. Again, the b-tag was completely gone from my head. Overall, it was a really nice, well-organized race, and I'd totally do it again (maybe even the half next year). I picked up my yummy salad, and we headed out to rescue my kids from the evil clutches of my oldest (HAHA!!).

Well, imagine my surprise when the official results were posted!! I missed a PR by 6 (!!!) seconds, all because I let myself off the hook! Rats! Well, lesson learned for next time. I finished in 33:35, coming in 28 out of 253 in my age group and 276 out of 2538 overall. Not bad for a slowpoke like me! And I felt really good throughout, unlike my last race when I thought I'd die halfway through. So I'm learning and improving. Push to the end!! You never know...

Marathon training is officially underway, and my children, after only a week of summer vacation, are trying to kill me and each other. Sigh. The rain is not helping anything. I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot of RUNNING AWAY this summer...