Monday, July 11, 2011

Roo Bear Run 5k

Saturday morning I had a race to run.  I was pumped up to run.  I race day mornings no matter what the distance is.   This morning I got up at 6 because I was meeting my mom 20 minutes from the house and the race site was 45 minutes from my house.  I decided to try something new for breakfast and had a Thomas Thin Bagel with peanut butter.  It was really good and I'm glad they were buy one/get one at Winn-Dixie this past week.

When I left my house, there was no sign of rain.  It was looking like it was going to be a pretty morning.  Once I hit Highway 300 on the way to meet my mom, it started to sprinkle.  I don't mind the rain, I just really don't want to run in it. 

I meet my mom and we head on over to the middle school that the race is being held at.  On the way over, the rain starts to come down and not only is it raining, it is now thundering and lightening to.  Great, I really don't want to run in this mess.

We get to the school and everyone is piled under the awnings just waiting to see what the race director was going to do.  By the time 8 rolls around, the thunder is slowly quieting down and there is no more lightening, so we proceed to the starting line.  I kid you not, by the time the race director yelled go, it had stopped raining and it stayed that way until mom and I were headed back to my car. 

So the race director yells go and I take off.  Like usual I start of way too fast but it feels different this time.  

I hit Mile 1 in 7:18.  At this time I'm the number 1 female.  I've never had the lead like this before and the excitement takes over that I could actually win this.  I had no clue how far back the other girls were and I never even dared to take a gander to see how far back they were.  I just kept on trucking trying to pull the guy (that I would play leap frog with on the last mile) to me.

Mile 2 7:55.  Right before this mile we hit the turn around and that's when I see just how close the second and third place girls are from me.  They are actually on my tail the entire time.  Crap.  This is where I also give up first and second place.  I was a little disappointed in myself for letting go of first but I was completely ill with myself for letting go of second place. 

Mile 3 8:25, this mile was TOUGH.  The guy that I mentioned earlier kept stopping to walk, so I would pass him and then he would come screaming by me, only to stop and walk again.  That cycle would last until I said, "The last mile is always the toughest."  I guess he didn't want a girl talking to him, so he hightailed it out of there.  This is also the same mile that I gave up third place.  By then I just didn't care.  I was tired and wanted the race to be over with. 

.13 7:49.  Total time: 24:41, total miles: 3.13, average pace: 7:53, calories burned 321.

After I crossed the finish line, I stumbled to the water coolers and grabbed two bottles of water, managed to shuffle over to the tables to fill out my card and drop it in my age category and then I walked back out on to the course to help my mom get to the finish line.  I found her right before the 3rd mile marker and we walked/ran it to the finish line.  I was so proud of her for getting out and running the race, she had a cold and hasn't really been running.  She did awesome. 

We stuck around for the awards ceremony where my mom placed 2nd in her age group (she's a rockstar) and I placed 3rd in my age group.  The two girls who got me in the end, yeah they were in my age group.  If I had known, I might would have knocked down (I kid, maybe).

I have another race on August 6 and then the 15.5k on August 26. 

Angela :)

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