First real road race for me in over a year and it was time to see if I still had some speed.
My main goal for this race was to run faster than 52:30 so I had a time to turn in for the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon seeding. I needed 52:30 to get into a Preferred Start Corral. Maybe it's petty of me to want to get into one of the front corrals. I couldn't help but think this. But I don't want to start in the back... now I just had to prove that I was fast enough.
My work schedule wasn't ideal. I was supposed to work from 5 pm Friday night to 2 am Saturday morning. That makes for a short night when the race is at 9 am on Saturday morning in Seymour, IN. My plan was to drive to Columbus, IN after I got off work in Bloomington and spend the night at my in-laws house. That way at least I'd already be halfway to Seymour in the morning.
So... of course nothing goes as planned. I got a call at 1:45 pm Friday. Seems one of the docs at one of the other hospitals we staff got sick and they had to pull a doctor from Bloomington to cover, and now they needed me in Bloomington at 2:30 pm. Uhhh.... crap. Nothing to do but jump in the shower (I was having a leisurely morning since I was going to be up all night) then start throwing clothes in a bag to take to Columbus. I hadn't even checked the weather for the morning. I thought it was going to be nice but wasn't sure. Ended up throwing in tights, compression shorts, long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, fleece jacket, socks and another T-shirt in a bag, hoping I didn't forget anything. Put my Garmin on because I didn't want to forget that!
On the road by 2 pm, then it occurs to me... am I working til 2 am? Are they calling anyone else in? Working 12 hours would really suck! Luckily they found another doc to call in so it actually ended up better for me. I managed to get out by 12:30 am. I considered driving back to Greenwood and sleeping in my own bed since I got done earlier than planned but then decided to go ahead and head to Columbus.
Got a pretty decent night's sleep and got to Seymour just after 8 am. Temps were in the mid-40's. Perfect running weather. My Garmin took forever to pick up a satellite but finally did at the end of my warm up run. I figure I went roughly a mile. Then it was race time!
Main goal was 52:30 but my stretch goal was sub-50:00. I actually looked back Thursday night at the blog from last year to see how I had been running at this time last year. I found I had been putting in WAY more miles and running faster overall so running faster today than last year was going to be a real stretch... but you never know!
Plan was to see how long I could hold an 8:00 pace...
Mile 1 - 7:35. Yup, plan went out the window. The 5K and 10K started together. I kept telling myself to let the 5K women go but I just couldn't! It felt comfortable to run with them even though I was telling myself to slow down the entire time.
Mile 2 - 7:55. I settled down a bit. Then the 5K and 10K split and I was on my own.
Mile 3 - 8:25. Still felt good and I told myself I'd be fine if I just held this pace.
Mile 4 - 8:27. Still doing OK.
Mile 5 - 8:49. Pretty much felt like I tanked this mile. I was running into the wind and it started to feel hard. Overall though, I consciously knew I was mentally in a much better place this year at this point in the race than I was last year. I can still DO this!
Mile 6 - 8:32. I could see the school with half a mile to go and knew I had the time I needed. All I had to do was finish strong.
Last 0.2 - 1:04
Official time - 50:47.2 (8:10 pace)
Finished Third Overall in the Women's race, and First in the 40-49 age group.
I was 3 seconds slower than last year. I'll take that! Extremely happy with my race today. Ya... some what if's about mile 5, but it's done and I got the time that I needed.
Jane and me after the awards
Jane won the 40-49 age group in the 5K
Probably should have done a cool down run after the race but I got too busy talking to friends I hadn't seen in a year. It was fun. Plus I won a door prize for five free lunches at the Pewter Hall in Brownstown (road trip anyone?)
Then....
I came home and was greeted with this sad face...
Seems like Belle picked a fight with a raccoon half her size at 4 am this morning. Hubs finally had to shoot the raccoon to break up the fight. Then he realized Belle was spraying blood everywhere. He ended up having to wake J up so she could hold pressure on Belle while he drove her to the 24-hour emergency vet. Belle ended up with 14 stitches in her left ear. Poor puppy! ... and serendipitous for me that I went to Columbus or I wouldn't have slept at all!
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