Frederick Women's Distance Festival 5K

I used to sleep in on Saturdays.  I miss it.

Today I woke up at 5 a.m. in order to get myself together and in the car by 6 to head to the Frederick Women's Distance Festival 5K. The race was about an hour away, and I wanted to get there in time to pick up my packet, use the facilities, and do my warm-up.  I got there with plenty of time, so I decided to take a pic for my Facebook cheerleaders.

Bathroom selfies.  I still don't get it. 

Remind me not to do that again.   Moving on....... 

I did a little random warming up, and checked out the crowd.  There were about 300 women in the race, and a ton of male volunteers wearing bright pink shirts that said "She's The Boss."  I spied a woman that I've seen at two other races (well, one other race, two different years).  I jokingly call her my "nemesis."   She's 70 and we finished within seconds of each other the last two times.  I could not let that happen today.  

Someone announced that we should all move towards the starting line (we were all in the wrong place) so we trudged up a hill and lined up.  I lined up near the back of the pack, like I normally do.  Today that was a bad idea.  The gun went off, I hit my Garmin, and.... nothing.  Everyone in front of me WALKED to the starting line.  Lovely.  Except this was not a chip timed race, and every second counted!    We finally started moving and I was feeling good, though I was getting a little frustrated at having to dodge around people.  Now I know how people feel when I'm in their way! 

The race looped around the campus of a community college, so we were alternating between being in the street, and on paths.  The paths were just bigger than two people wide, and sometimes it was difficult to pass.  I held back for the first mile, but then decided that it wasn't really being rude to pass, this was a RACE after all, so I started being a bit more aggressive with getting around people.  

I was really starting to feel tired around 2.5 miles.  I thought maybe I wasn't going to PR and I started to feel a little defeated.  I let myself have about 5 seconds of a pity party, then just kept chugging.  When I hit the 3 mile mark, I told myself to just hold on and I started picking people off.  Just steadily increasing my speed, I passed a few ladies, including one woman just before the finish line.  I smiled for the photographer, tore off the bottom of my bib, grabbed my water, and got out of the chute.  

Time on my Garmin read 35:20 - a 36 second PR!  My splits looked like this: 

Overall, it was a great race.  I am very happy with my time, because I feel like I did my best.  Of course, the next few days will be spent like this: 

But that's ok. 

Now..... chocolate.  =)