Labor Day 5K Complete

*********************************************UPDATE************************

The results are in: Rick and I both posted an official time of 31:35 for a 10:10 overall pace! He took 4th in his age group and I took 1st in mine....unfortunately, due to the length of time before ANY results were posted we weren't there when the awards were given out, so had to forfeit our medals......I am NOT a happy camper right now!!!!!!!

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Well, we finished the first in our series of races for this season, and as far as I'm concerned it was a success....I met the goal I had set for myself! I ran the entire race, did NOT walk ONE STEP! It has been a long time coming - since back in February when I ran the Cowtown 1/2....I don't know exactly what happened there, but I haven't been able to run a complete 5K since then without walking at least a little near the end.

We got up early this morning, since the run was at White Rock and parking is limited, and drove down to our regular parking spot at the Big Thicket. We walked from there to the Bath House to pick up our bibs and shirts - walked back to the car to lock up the shirts...(had them stolen at the last DRC race because we didn't have a safe place to store them!) and walked back to the Bath House to wait for the start. I was a little surprised when we got there and found out that the race wasn't chip timed - but more about that later! There were nice people setting up a drink station at the finish line, so we were able to hydrate a little with some gatorade before the start.

We walked over to the start area and got in the line towards the middle of the pack and waited for the "shout" - no gun - and off we went. I felt REALLY good...was into a good pace right away, feeling strong and not breathing too hard. The 15K racers peeled off at about .75 miles into the race so the pack thinned out pretty good there. At the one mile marker my Garmin beeped and told me we had just completed the first mile in 9:23 . This was quite the surprise becaue I just didn't feel like I was pushing that hard...I was still feeling strong and breathing easy! This is better than my first mile in any 5K I have run before by over 10 seconds! I did try to slow it down a little, knowing that when I start out that fast I generally can't get all the way through the race without walking and I REALLY didn't want to walk today!

We continued to run and just under the bridge there was a water stop where I grabbed a cup of Gatorade and swigged a bit down...didn't really even slow to a walk there - but jogged on through! Whoo hoo!!! The next thing I knew we were at the turn around. Still feeling good - where normally I would be starting to really labor with my breathing.

At the two mile mark my Garmin again beeped and told me we had just completed mile 2 at a 9:44 pace! Can you say AMAZ-Z-Zing!!! Still going strong...still able to talk (a little) to Rick to let him know I was OK. Then we hit the 2.5 mile mark....I guess that is where I hit the proverbial wall.....I no longer felt as good - Rick could tell I was lagging back and slowing down. He was very encouraging and kept reminding me to dig deep - that I was stronger than I thought and I could do this. We were going uphill at this point and I was really struggling to keep going, but I wasn't stopping!

We hit the 3 mile mark and Garmin let me know how much I had slowed down... this mile was completed at a 10:32 pace. (About my normal race pace) Still not bad, and I'm very pleased. I struggled up the rest of the hill gasping for air all the way and was sooooo happy to start running down the hill into the grass because that meant we were closing in on the finish line. Rick and I hit the cones leading to the finish line and we really kicked it up a notch and sprintedto the finish line (Garmin says we did this part at a 6:58 pace!) Once through we stayed in the chute to turn in our bib information to be recorded and headed over for fluids and bananas. After we cooled down a little we watched several other racers come across the line. I really wanted to stay and see what our official time was and how we did in the overall and age categories.

Here is the only place I really have a complaint - we waited at the finish for over an hour for the results! When we left at 9:00 they were still waiting! In this day of chip timing and computer mobility I really don't see any reason that the 5K results weren't being announced before an hour was up. As of this posting I still don't have official information.....It is for this reason that we will not run another Thurston Racing event until they get this fixed. It is a real shame too, because it was a nice event - well organized with nice volunteers....it was just the timing that made it frustrating. I guess we may be a little spoiled by the other races (even those that aren't chip timed) by having times posted by the time you get your water and cool down a bit. You can go check out the preliminary results to see how you did and leave if you need to.

Anyway....I know I reached my goal of not walking at all through the race, and my unofficial time, which will be a bit slower than the official time since I got all the way through the chute before I hit stop on the Garmin was 31:46...the best 5K time I've run this year!