Jennifer and I were entered in the 10K and Claire was entered in the 5K! She had run a 2.1 mile cross-country race the day before, too, as the last race of her cross-country season in her freshman year of high school, so she was going to take this 5K relatively easy.
I decided to wear my green flourescent rock-n-roll wig for fun, since Halloween is such a big deal along the coastside and it's only two weeks away. The wig is a definite conversation starter, which is fun. I wore my traditional bright-orange Coastside Running Club shirt and it was fun seeing so many friends from the club that morning -- Amanda, Mandy, Jenny, Jake, Rachael, Bob, Joey. And I saw Paula and Margaret later on.
The kids' fun run started shortly after 8am and as some kids and their families were still standing in front of the 10K runners, the announcer suddenly said it was time to start the race! (I don't think there was a countdown or much warning.) OK, I guess we'll start running! So we ran around the kids and got going.
I was near the front of the pack, in the top five or six runners. As is always the case with these 10Ks (and nearly every race everywhere, actually) many people start too fast. I glanced at my watch -- 5:25 per mile pace. Oops. Too fast for me, too!
I saw the lead bicyclist make a left ahead of me, leading the first place runner through the first turn. When I and a few others got to that intersection five seconds later, the volunteer motioned for us to run straight! Oh oh! I felt like running straight was the correct direction, so I kept going straight, but everyone else made a left turn.
Well, that sucked. I was trying to remember the course, and I thought I could make a left up ahead and rejoin the others, such that we all ran the same distance, but no, that's not how the course goes. The official route is to make a long u-turn, going out one block, going left for two blocks, and then left again for one block. So, I rejoined everyone else, now behind dozens of runners, since I had just run 0.2 miles farther. (Or, more accurately, they cut 0.2 miles off the course.)
As the familiar coastal trail miles wore on, I wore down and couldn't seem to help slowing down a bit. My average pace settled in right at 6 minutes per mile. It was fun seeing all the other runners on the out-and-back section, including Jennifer! Good job, Jennifer!
Running club member Paula happened to be at the spot where Amanda and I were crossing paths.
Near the end, with two blocks to go, I passed the lead woman and then heard another runner on my heels. I picked up the pace to a near sprint, but this was too early and I still had a long block left, so I had to slow down again and he passed me. I turned the corner and ran hard to the finish line. Yay!
The race got hard, but it was over quickly. My watch showed 37:43, but my official time is 37:48 and I was in 4th place. If I had run 0.2 miles shorter at 6 minutes per mile, then my official time would have been around 36:36 and I would have come in 3rd place.
It was fun hanging out with Claire since she had run a solid 5K in 29:16. She ran the whole thing and was about 6 minutes faster than her best 5K from years ago.
Jennifer finished the 10K in 1:04:42 and seemed happy about it, even though she had to stop once to go to the bathroom and again to tie her shoe.
Somehow, I still managed to come in first place in my 40-49 age group, and I received a nice thermos, branded with the race logo and "2016", and a nice warm cap which came in handy as we walked around the Pumpkin Festival afterwards. My friend Amanda came in first place in her age group, too! So we had identical prizes.
Random Data
- Weighed 168.4 lbs in the morning. Ouch! I guess those three bowls of cereal and two slices of pizza the night before bumped up my weight, temporarily, hopefully! I didn't eat breakfast.
- Garmin Data
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