Monday, December 5, 2011

Green Baret 10k- PR! A Recap~

I decided to do a local 10k about a week ago. I needed a race. I hadn't raced since my last tri in Aug. A 10k seemed like an ok distance, not too long and certainly not short....and I hadn't done one since 2008!

Race day came and I didn't have a race crew. J-Ninja had done a 10k on Saturday and wasn't up for a second one. I checked the race website and saw that I had to be there before 7:45 AM for a 9 AM race start to get my race packet. I got there at 7:40 and easily got my bib. They didn't have the race shirts, for whatever reason, so I have to get it later, somehow. There I was, an hour and twenty minutes early. I don't do early.

I was sitting in my car prepping for the race and grabbed G. Money (my Garmin). It was OFF. It would't come on. FAIL. I sat and thought about how much it was going to stink to not have stats for my first 10k since 2008, how much it was going to suck to not have stats from a PR race. Then I grabbed my iPhone and searched the apps for iMapMyRun. SCORE! I downloaded the app and instantly felt better. At about 8:30 I got a call from my buddy Heezie-he was on his way! YAY!!! I would have a running buddy! Heezie made his 5 Mile debut when ran me to a 5k PR last December at Ryan's Reindeer 5k!

I met Heezie and we headed to the start. I had no idea where the route would go but was relieved to know there would be a pickup to follow, you know, in case I was first. We inched up a bit closer to the start, it wasn't a big race, only 221 total runners. The race started with a bang. Literally. They set of a cannon or huge fireworks or something. I hit start on my iPhone iMapMyRun app and shoved it in my arm band, where it would stay for the remainder of the race, and turned on my iPod. We took off running. I had no way of knowing how fast I was going but I felt ok, and I felt fast. Heezie stayed beside me and up a little bit. He would surge and hold, forcing me to keep up.

My breath came easy and my legs felt good. I kept waiting for a side stitch. And that was in the first mile. A mile in and I was still fighting my britches. It took a mile and a half before my skin was sweaty enough to cling to my waistband and stop the inching down. Around mile two I ditched the hand warmer that Heezie had given me. My hands were beyond warm. About two blocks after I chucked the hand warmers I felt nauseous. A wave of puke-ness came over me. This was it, I thought. I'm gonna puke. I knew I was running faster than normal. Faster than I normally do. Heezie was not slowing and I swallowed my stomach and told myself there was no time to puke. I kept going. By mile three the urge to throw my breakfast on the curb had subsided. a block later Heezie asked how we were doing on time. I had no idea and told him so. A dude just up from us shouted out, "24:12!" Ugh......I don't do 24:12 for 3 miles. A 5k PR perhaps? In a 10k? Dang!!!

Around the 4 mile mark I could feel my breathing getting heavier and my mind getting heavier too. I knew I was going faster than normal and it was getting hard. Hard is ok, though, right? Heezie kept going and I had to keep up. We got passed by a dude, then eventually two more dudes. No females passed us. I couldn't see who was ahead, I had no idea how many girls were ahead of me. We passed one girl and kept going. The route had us twisting and turning around downtown. I was ready to head to the finish. Where was the finish? Are we there yet?

With a bit over a half of a mile left we passed one more girl, on an uphill. The sun was to our backs and I realized I liked this, it made for big shadows. I could see if a shadow was coming to pass us at least a good 5 feet before it was actually going to make the pass. I only saw one, it was a dude.

The finish line came into view and I went as fast as I could.....the finish clock said 50 something....a certain PR! I couldn't believe it. Actually I could, it felt like I was going that fast, I was uncomfortable and tired. What I couldn't believe is that I had actually done that, without whining or dying or puking.

We wandered around for a bit and attempted to find out the results with no luck. Heezie decided to head home and I headed to my car. I put my stuff down and decided to go back one more time to check for the results. This time the guy put my name in, gave me my time of 50:33 and said I was 4th in my Age Group. Dang. Missed the podium by one place. I decided to head home.

I was proud of my race! With a 50:33 time that gave me an 8:10 min/mile pace. But with the distance on the iMapMyRun of 6.48 miles it gave me a 7:46 min/mile pace. I'm not sure how accurate that app is, I'll be curious to test it and compare it, running it at the same time as my Garmin. But either way, a PR is a PR and I was pumped!!

Today when I checked the results page I saw that I actually got THIRD in my Age Group! What was that guy smoking? Why would he tell me 4th? So who knows, maybe I missed a cool prize. Oh well......

So there you have it, my 10k PR and THIRD in my Age Group!!! And 76 out of 221 total runners. Next up, Ryan's Reindeer 5k! I smell another PR!


And check out the course map, Tall Mom pointed out it looks like a gun, a pistol to be exact. So what do you think, did they do that on purpose?? It was, after all the Green Baret 10k...











24 comments:

  1. LOOK AT YOU!!! CONGRATS!! So proud of you. That is a fantastic 10k time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job! I am sure that was a great feeling! Also good job on not puking... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. A PR and an Age Group podium finish = awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations! That is awesome. That happened to me one time and they mailed me the medal! Hopefully, they will do that for you too.:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. First: CONGRATS!

    Second: Send a note to the race organizer. They may have a prize waiting for you. (It can't hurt to ask!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmm...that DOES look like a gun! Congrats on the PR. I wonder if the overall female was in your age group and that's why he said 4th? Def call and check on your prize!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great job. Awesome run. Way to hang in there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You should be super proud! Way to bust out the PR, girl!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice work pushing through. It's hard doing it sometimes, but the second you throttle back, you get stuck in the lower gears and can't bounce back. At least that's how it always seems to go for me. So way to stay on pace. Aweseome time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. wooohooo!!!!!! Congratulations!

    And I totally think they did that on purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congrats on a PR! That has to be a gun, what a great idea. I wonder if other races create themed routes?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think they did it on purpose.. Not to self if I ever plan a race have it spell out TALL MOM..

    Hugs to a PR!! You rock sister..

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a bummer that they told you wrong! Congrats on the PR and AG!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. That's a great time!! When you can hold down uncomfortable for that long and not puke you're doing something pretty great!! It's why I love cool weather running!

    ReplyDelete
  15. The guy might have told you that you were 4th because you were 4th by gun time. A lot of the timing systems come up with only gun time results at first and later (I guess with some kind of manual processing) produce chip time results. So it's not unusual for results to move around after the race. The exact same thing happen to a friend of mine this year (he got his medal later).

    ReplyDelete

You're pretty much awesome!!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails