(He also has a thing for destroying water bottles)
We had spent the night over at my friend Alex's house because the 5K was in Laramie, where she lives. It's only about a 45 minute drive from Cheyenne to Laramie, but I figured it was best not to give my self any extra excuses not to go! Alex is in the middle of her masters degree so she was still fast asleep, and needs all the extra sleep she can get, so me and the monster snuck out and headed to the mini-mart (please tell me I'm not the only one who still says that) to pick up a few supplies. I don't know if you are supposed to drink coffee before you run, but I needed it! The older I get the more my mornings need coffee. Besides a cup of coffee I picked up a couple bottles of water, and searched high and low trying to find some sort of granola/power/protein bar that didn't contain a days worth of sugar. It was not an easy task! It came down to a Special K protein bar that had a 190 calories and 15g of sugar (seriously it was the lowest) or a Nature Valley "Energy" bar that had 200 calories or 16g of sugar! I almost didn't eat anything I couldn't believe how high the sugar and calories were in these things, they are practically candy bars! I didn't want to have an empty stomach though so I settled on the nature valley bar and headed back to Alex's house.
I guess I should mention that Alex is a pro runner. She originally went to college on a track/cross country scholarship, but she hurt her hip at the end of her sophomore year and hasn't ran competitively since. She recently started running again and is going to run a half over July 4th weekend. She kept telling me she would stay with me through the 5k, but I kept telling her that her "really slow" and my REALLY SLOW were totally different speeds. She kept saying she has only been out for a few runs and she's still out of shape and blah blah blah, and I kept telling her I'm basically just an elephant plodding along and that the last time she ran as slow as I do she was probably in 4th grade. Let me just mention that when she ran for UW her 5k time was around 17 minutes... yeah I will probably never be able to do 2 miles in 17 minutes yet alone 3.1! We finished getting ready (read drink our coffee and listen to me whine about thinking I am going to be last/die), locked my monster and his 5,000 toys we brought along in her bathroom (he travels with a whole army of "friends", he might be a little spoiled), and headed to the race.
IT WAS FREEZING! When I had headed to the mini-mart I was completely confident that it was going to be a nice day it was pure blue sky, no wind, and was starting to warm up. Well apparently as soon as I got back it quit warming up, the clouds came out, and the wind picked up. The race started at 10 and we had gotten there about 9:30 to register. We hadn't pre-registered because I had told Alex I was a fair weather runner and I wasn't going to do it if it was raining, snowing, windy or cold... yeah that worked out. It was about 40 degrees cloudy and windy. They had WAY more people show up then they expected so they ended up running out of bibs and having to make them, so I ran my first 5k with a ghetto hand written bib, and I didn't even get a t-shirt because they had ran out of those too :-( I was pretty bummed that I have nothing to show from my first race, but oh well guess I'll just have to do another ;-) We spent a half hour standing their FREEZING talking to a few other girls we knew and watching serious runners warm up and stretch and do all sorts of things that my slow ass doesn't need to do (Alex did do a little warming up). And then it was finally time for them to call us to line up.
We lined up in the "joggers" area or where we thought the joggers area was. It was just a fun run so they didn't have a set line up or start corrals or anything crazy like that they just said competitive runners in front, then runners, then joggers, then walkers, and then those with dogs and strollers in back. Right before the start we looked back and realized that we were a little farther towards the front then we probably should of been whoopsies! There was a count down and we were off, mostly like a herd of turtles. We got passed by 20 or so people probably and then we were all kind of spread out into our little groups. I did pass a few people which I never in a million years thought I would do. Alex ran with me for almost the first half mile, but then she had to leave me because her slow easy does it pace was still faster than mine. About the time she took off a guy with a black lab caught up with me and I followed him for the WHOLE race, he was my pacer and it was nice to have someone else that was my speed. FYI we got passed by a guy running barefoot and a lady with my stroller, it hurt my pride a little bit, but there was NO WAY in hell I had the energy to run any faster than I was. The last mile I felt him picking up speed and I wasn't about to loose him so I picked up the pace too. I figured he was just an experienced runner who liked to finish strong, but I found out after the race that his dog didn't like the sound of the brides or the underpasses so he would run faster and pull him and there were a lot of bridges in that mile haha. But thanks to the dogs fear of the bridges my 3rd mile was my fastest and I ran a faster time than I thought I would. Before I fill you in on my final time and my mile times I have to admit to an embarrassing moment. When we got close to the finish you had to go around a corner and then it was a windy path to the finish, well I got to the corner and thought the finish was right after it so I picked up the speed lengthened my stride and gave it everything I had, I wanted to finish strong the finish was only like a tenth or so away... WRONG!!! It was more than a quarter mile away and I dead and straight ran out of gas. When I finally did get to the last tenth I tried to pick up my pace again, but there was NOTHING left and I just sound like a bear weezing and gasping for air, and I'm sure I looked about like an elephant. But I crossed the finish line which is all that really mattered and I crossed it was some sort of crazy gasping for air, but trying to smile expression because the clock read 30:32!
I couldn't believe it when the clock came into sight that it was ticking away in the 30 minute range and not closer to 35 and if it hadn't been I don't know if I would of found the motivation to even try and summon up some extra speed. I have to admit that my first thought when I saw it was a little disappointment that I was so close to the 30 minutes I had initially wanted to be under and I hadn't made it, but that quickly went away and I was just stoked that it was my fastest run yet! I think I will definitely run another 5k this month and try and get under that 30 minute goal. My legs aren't sore at all today so I think I can definitely do it, I just need to pick up the pace more evenly and not all in one sprint 90% of the way through the race! Even though my legs aren't sore I was totally out of breath, dying for water, and felt like I was going to puke when I finished, but that passed and I think had I not had that crazy sprint at around mile 2.75 I would of felt a lot better at the finish. Lesson learned! I forgot to stop my running app when I finished for about a minute so the last .1 of a mile isn't right, but the rest of my times were:
mile 1 - 10:16 at 5.8 miles an hour
mile 2 - 9:59 at 6.0 miles an hour
mile 3 - 9:19 at 6.4 miles an hour!!! Yeah that's right! Thanks to that doggie and his fear of bridges I ran my fastest mile so far, and it was my last one so that definitely makes me feel like I can pick up the pace in my first two miles and get under that 30 minute mark :-)
and the last .14 is all screwed up unfortunately so I don't know what my pace was at the finish :-( oh well though next time I will remember to stop it.
Alex and I after the race with my ghetto handwritten bib (yes it's crooked, I'm good like that) and super squinty eyes because the sun had FINALLY come out
Even though I almost froze to death, I got a little excited for the finish a little early, and I was weazing and gasping like a drowning 90 year old all in all the race was a success in my book! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for the next one! I am going to have to work a few of them into my half marathon training. I am feeling pretty confident in myself that I will be able to get the 4 miles in next weekend, and for now I am just going to take it one week at a time otherwise it gets a little overwhelming thinking about adding 10 miles! I'm setting a goal for myself to run my 10k in June in under an hour, but seeing as they will be throwing paint at me if I don't make it, it won't be the end of the world. I really want to reach my goal of doing a half marathon just for myself, so I can say look at what I did! And so I will know that if I put my mind to something I can get it done, but I think it will probably be the only one I run. I just am not an athlete, or a runner and this whole thing is going to be a giant struggle, and it's a HUGE commitment. I still really want to do it, but I think after I do I will stick with 5k's and 10k's that way running can just be fun, like it should be. I hope you guys also had a great weekend, I'm now off to do all the chores I put off till today :-)
(PS I just had a FREAK OUT because after I typed that whole thing I went to fix some of spelling errors and accidently deleted it ALL... yep I was having a mini heart attack, thank god for undo buttons!)
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