I ran the Fall Into Fitness 5K Saturday. This was my last race of 2013 season.
The sky was blue, the temperatures were in the high 30s and it was really windy. The wind was blowing over 20 mph. If the wind was blowing so much, it would have been a perfect day to race.
I was able to park close to the start line. I waited to take off my sweatpants and jacket off about five minutes before the race started. Waiting for the race to start, I was second guessing not bringing gloves. Once the race started, that feeling went away as I just bunched my hands inside my long sleeved shirt until they were warm.
When the race started, it felt like everyone was speeding by me. I just let them go. I was able to run a steady pace and crossed the first mile marker in about 7:58. It really didn't feel like I was running that fast. After the mile marker, the route took us a couple more blocks down the street. When we made a right handed turn, we met the wind. It was really strong. I wanted to stay behind groups of people, but they started to run away from me. I did catch up to a female and got behind her. I didn't stay there long as I ended up passing her.
One of our turns took us down into a park. Inside the park, I was able to catch a few more runners and pass them. Coming out of the park, we turned left and ran up an incline into the wind. On the short incline, I caught and was able to pass a few more runners. Once over the hill, a few runners and I were running in a pack. While in the pack, I lead the pack for a bit and so did a couple of other women.
The two women I was running with, started pulling away with about a mile to go. I didn't see the street marker indicating that we crossed the second mile mark, but I heard one of the women say that there was a mile left. Usually I would have looked at my watch to see if I was on pace, but I didn't. The women were getting away, but I was running down two guys in front of me. As I passed the guys, I could hear them talking. I knew I started to pull away from them because I couldn't hear them anymore.
Turning the final corner leading into the straightaway to the finish line, I knew that people were behind me. Some of the spectators on the corner were yelling for a couple of ladies. With a block to go, I heard a guy talking. I thought it was the guys I just passed. It wasn't. It was a guy leading two women. The guy told the women that they needed to speed up if they wanted to finish in the 25 minute mark. When they sped up, so did I. I was able to keep up with the women, but I finished behind them. I finished the race in 26:18.57.
I really wanted to finish the race in 25 minutes, but I was 18 seconds off. I was happy with my effort. I just fully recovered from a bad strained hamstring and running 26 minutes isn't bad at all. Especially with how very windy it was and how I haven't ran an interval workout in a while. I had a great racing season. I'm happy with how it all turned out.
