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.  =) 

Frederick Women's Distance Festival

I got the go-ahead from my coach, so it looks like I'll be running in the Frederick Women's Distance Festival 5K Run/Walk on August 10th.  Which means I have 10 days to figure out how in the heck to run a 5K.

Even though I've been doing speed work once a week, my running lately has been more focused on laid-back, easy runs, and building up mileage.  It's been ages since I tried to run at a fast pace and hold it for any length of time.   Yesterday I did mile repeats, but I know I can't hold that pace for 3.1 miles.  I suppose I'll just have to go out and wing it, like always, but I do wish I had a better idea of what I'm capable of.

Actually, that's part of the whole reason behind running this race- so that I can find out what I'm capable of!

Fortunately, unless I trip and break something, there's a high probability that this race will go better than my last one, so that's something, at least.  Plus, this is an all-women event for a good cause, so there's that.  

Now, I'm off to the gym.  Someone remind me why I thought an hour long training session would be a good idea today?  

*crickets*

Yeah, that's what I thought! 

Frederick Run Fest!

This weekend was the Frederick Run Fest. On Saturday night, there was a 5K, and on Sunday morning, a Half Marathon. If you completed both, you got two medals - the one for the half, and an additional one for being a "Nut Job."

American flags at the start of the 5K.
These two gentleman ran with them the whole way. 

Since this was my first Half Marathon, I decided to skip the 5K and instead just cheer on my friends, who are, indeed, nuts! After the 5K we had dinner, then headed back to the hotel.

While I normally don't sleep well the night before races, it was even worse this time. I didn't fall asleep until well after midnight, then kept waking up due to loud neighbors and the loud sounds of traffic outside our hotel room. I finally gave up a bit before 5 and just got up.

Around 6, Michelle and I headed to the race. It was about a mile and a half walk, but when we saw the traffic backing up, we knew we were right to walk. Plus, warm up! :-)

I decided to line up behind the 2:40 pacer, even though I wasn't quite sure what pace I'd end up running. Since I was going to be doing a run/walk, I didn't want to be in anyone's way, so I figured starting in the back would be a good idea.

Spoiler alert:  I did not finish in 2:40:00

At the last minute, I found out that a girl I know wanted to run with me. She'd been recovering from surgery as well as shin splints, so she thought run/walking sounded like a good plan.  I was nervous about running with anyone, since this was my first half, and I really wanted to do MY thing, but I figured I couldn't say no.  Plus, seeing a gorgeous hot air balloon float over our heads kind of filled my heart with hope.

Floated right over the start line, then off to who knows where. 

It turns out, running with Erin was great. The miles seemed to fly by. We were both feeling good, the weather was perfect, and the course was amazing. I really loved that the residents of Frederick were so enthusiastic about the race. People cheered us on, played inspirational music, offered up bathrooms, blew bubbles, and when we ran past a church, there was even a man of God outside blessing the pack. It was amazing.

I started to get tired around mile 8 but was still feeling pretty good. When we hit mile 12, I was so overwhelmed by the fact that I was about to finish a half marathon that I teared up a few times.

After a bit of a hill (which I did NOT enjoy), we came to the race track, where the finish line was. We had to go about 3/4 of the way around. I really wanted to walk, I was so tired, but Erin told me to "dig deep." I laughed and said "I don't have a deep!" I told her I had to at least slow down, so when we hit the last straight away, she went on ahead. I was left all alone for the last few hundred feet. There was no one in front of me or next to me and it was such a surreal feeling after having run with Erin and a whole pack of other runners for 13 miles.

It was kind of fitting, though. In the end, I was the one who had to "dig deep" and finish strong. My legs, my heart, my drive. As much as everyone supported me and cheered for me these past weeks, it was up to ME to actually do it. And I did. :-)

Oh, and that 2:40 pacer? Yeah. I finished ahead of her. Official time for my first half marathon - 2:37:54. Couldn't be happier.