Bulldog 5K Run

I ran the Bulldog 5K Run Saturday. Coming into the race, I had already run 91 miles. I really didn't have a goal coming into the race, except to have fun.

The race crowd was small, probably about 60-70 people. I started the race a couple of rows behind the very fast runners (the overall men/women's winners). The first strides of the run, my legs felt funky. I was thinking it was all the miles I had on my legs coming into the event. I kept going and eventually that funky feeling went away.

By the first mile, which was the only mile marked on the course, I was running alone. I always seem to end up by myself no matter the race distance. I knew I wasn't really alone as I could hear two guys behind me talking. I was working hard to keep them behind me. Probably around the 1.5/2 mile mark, the guys ended up pulling beside me and passed me. The guys also pulled along a college girl with them. I was step for step with her for a bit, but she pulled ahead of me also.

After they passed me, I really didn't want their lead to grow more. They were about 10-15 seconds ahead of me. The space in between us really didn't grow or shrink which made me happy. All of us did catch a teen girl and pass her. I saw her before the race warming up. I really thought she looked tough and fast. I'm thinking she actually went out too fast. While I was catching up with her, I noticed she was taking walk breaks.

The final stretch of the race had a long straightaway, a turn on a short uphill, a turn onto a service drive leading us to a lap around a football field. I picked up my pace on the straightaway. I used my arms running up the final uphill and ran as fast as I could around the football field. When I turned the final corner on the field heading to the finish line, I looked at the clock. It read 25 minutes. I was a little disappointed. Only the first mile was marked. Since the other two miles weren't marked, I didn't even look at my watch. I felt I was running faster then I actually was. I finished the 5K in 25:52. With all the miles I ran before the race, I was happy to finish only 51 seconds off my 5K PR.

This year the age groups were separated into 10 years instead of five. I was unsure of how I finished against a larger age group. The final results were posted online and didn't list anyone's ages.  I was hoping to find out if I placed in the top three in my age group. Now I will never know. According to the results, I finished 22nd overall out of 70 runners and was the 6th overall female.