We arrived early and registered. We were excited to get shirts because it seems like we never get them with race day registration anymore. We hid in the car to stay warm. Shane had checked the weather... for home, not Shenango. *sigh* It was freezing and snowing. As we were waiting all the fast people started showing up for last minute registration. To top it off, Mr. Annoying from the Cold Man 5k showed up. I've never wanted to chick someone so much in my life!
I did a warm up run with some strides and realized we weren't running the same course as the last race. I asked the race director quickly what the course was and he confirmed my fears. We were running a route with more hills and generally uphill. It consisted of a small loop which was less than a mile and then a large loop to make up the remainder. I was really starting to wish I'd stayed in bed.
We lined up and moved about 3 rows back to allow all the guys I knew were faster than me to start first. I lined up next to one of the women I know can whoop me usually. She was saying she was suffering from stress reactions in her shins so she hadn't been running much. I was hoping I could pace off her to a PR or at least a good placement. But the gun went off and she was gone along with the woman who had lined up on the other side of me.
I held my goal pace perfectly for the first mile (7:58). Then we started up a gradual winding incline and I felt like I couldn't pull myself together. My core felt hot but my legs were cold. My throat was okay but my lungs were burning. My leg turnover felt slow and my strides felt clumsy. Nothing felt right at all.
By mile 2 a few more women had passed me. I tried to hold on to Mr. Annoying but he was slowly pulling away. By the time we reached the third mile I knew a PR was out of reach and that even staying in the 25's would be hard. Right then we approached the biggest hill of the course. I didn't give up, didn't walk, but I wanted to! My Garmin was beeping at me to speed up but I couldn't. I finally reached the top of the monster and headed down the other side to the finish. I crossed at 26:20 and gave the race director my bib tag before I went over to the grass and threw a mini tantrum, complete with throwing my hat.
I have no idea what happened and I'm hoping it was just a bad day. My husband didn't do as well as he'd hoped either, finishing in 22:19. We both got first in our age group but I realized when I looked at the results that there were only me and another woman in my age group (even though it was a ten year age group)!
Overall, I'm okay with the time. If you'd asked me a year ago I would have said a 26:20 5k was impossible for me. Now that I know I can do better than that I want to see just how good I can do. Hopefully the next one, in a MINE, will go better. Shane and I ran it last year and had a blast! Even though we don't have a shot at an age group award with the caliber of the field there the even itself is just too neat to pass up!
