Got up at 4:30 am and went to work; left promptly at noon. I got to Columbus and registered for the race. It was a sunny but cool beautiful fall afternoon. As I had predicted, the #1 and #3 runners in my age group were there. Time wise, they are both faster than me. I decided to try to stay right behind them and not look at my watch too much.
The course was several loops around a neighborhood so there was never any point where you could count who was ahead of you and who was behind you. I pretty much stayed behind the #3 runner the whole way and there was one other female between us that looked like a high school runner. I never saw the #1 runner after the race started and I figured she was running behind me with one of her kids. She is so far ahead in the points standings now that she can afford to do that.
Here are my splits...
Mile 1 - 7:30
Mile 2 - 7:44
Mile 3 - 7:38
last 0.1? - 1:21 (my Garmin said 0.18 and I think the course was long!)
Official time - 24:12. Average mile pace 7:47
I grabbed some water after the race and walked back to my car. I picked up my phone and the time read 2:35 pm. 1 hour and 25 minutes to get to Carmel. Then I noticed I had a message. It was from my husband. He was back from Wisconsin already and the people at Gregory Hancock wanted to know if G could stay at "Nutcracker" rehearsal for another hour. He could go pick her up.
Hallelujah!
I went back and watched everyone else finish and stayed for the awards. I figured I got second in my age group but I thought there might have been another female runner between the winner and the #3 runner that beat me. Nope. The #3 runner finished second overall. The 14 year old in front of me was third, and I finished fourth overall. I got second in my age group. The #1 runner ran with her son and got third in our age group.
I had time to go home, shower, eat dinner and actually sit for an hour before driving back to Bloomington to work for another 3 hours. I got home just before midnight last night and just dropped!
All in all, the day's craziness was definitely worth it. It was my 10th race in the Crossroads of Indiana race series so I am now eligible for an overall award. I am currently in second in my age group. The #3 runner is now only 3 points behind me and I suspect she will end up second. Even if I do not run another race, the worst I can finish is third since the three of us that are leading our age group are so far ahead of everyone else in our age group.
More importantly, I felt really good during the race. I felt really evenly paced. If you go by my Garmin, I ran 3.18 miles which translates to a 7:37 pace. Plug that into a race calculator and that comes to a 23:40 5K. If I put that number in the race predictor I get marathon times of 3:44:29 to 3:50:59.
I am going to believe that I can run under 3:55:00 on Saturday.
I saw my chiropractor this morning and got my left hamstring and butt cheek stretched and rubbed out in a hurts-so-good kind of way. Then I ran an easy 3 mile loosen-up-the-legs kind of run this afternoon. I am still trying to decide what to wear on Saturday. It was 38 degrees at 8 am this morning but 60 degrees at noon. I think I'll hit up Goodwill tomorrow for some throw away clothes.
How was your Monday?
Congrats on the 2nd place! AWESOME! I can't believe you can keep up with who is in front and who is behind you. When I run race (which is thankfully not often at all) I can only focus directly in front of me! That helps me not to fall or trip or bump into people....! I wanted to run outside yesterday but gave up and ran on the treadmill. 6 long boring mile on the treadmill! Otherwise a great day :)
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