My daughter competed in the "Kids Dash" and managed to take first place. Of course, it was for kids up to 9 and she's nine and also tall, so she was about a head taller than anyone else, which helped her, I think. But, regardless, Hurrah for her!
My son competed in the Mile Run and managed a third place - his goal was 9 minutes, which I thought was conservative and he ran an 8:10 (or thereabouts). Hurrah for him!
Both kids brought home a medal, which is always fun.
In the 5K, I was thinking leading up to it that A) my summer goal this year would be to run under 22 minutes. Not all that fast in the grand scheme of things, but certainly a challenge for me. For last night, I was thinking maybe a more conservative 23 minute goal.
The race started out well - I felt good and loose. I crossed the first mile at about 6:40! I was quite surprised, needless to say. The course seemed very accurate - pretty much at each mile marker, my Garmin "beeped" the mile lap, so I knew it was pretty legitimate!. I crossed the two mile mark at about 13:40 - just under 7 minutes again! I'm still feeling good at this point but I know I'm facing that tough hill that comes right after that point.
I make it up that hill feeling OK and trying to do the math in my head, "How fast do I have to do this last 1.1 miles to finish under 22 minutes?? Hmm... I think that's 1.1 miles in a bit over 8 minutes, which I think means about a 7:15 mile, right?"
With about a half mile to go, I had a runner pass me and I thought, "No way, buddy!" so I picked up my pace and kept on trucking. Still feeling good!
I cross the line and see.... I ran a 21:34! Wow - Not only did I better my evening's goal but I've already beat my goal for the summer road race season! That's (well) over a minute faster than the other fastest 5K I've run any time in the last 15+ years. Woo hoo!
The only downer is that I now have to set myself another goal for the summer! Can I get under 21 minutes?? We'll see!
So my family likes to count the # of runners I finish behind (gives the kids something to do). They tell me I was 33rd overall. I knew the age group awards go 5 deep in each 5-year bracket for each gender. I figure statistically I'm likely to get an award (which turned out to be coffee mugs).
I wait through all of the female age groups and most of the male (yeah, yeah, waiting for the 40-44 bracket...) and they get to my group. Turns out that my group had something like 3 people run under 17 minutes! Holy cow! I did not get an age group award, but I did realize that my age group was probably the most competitive of any of them! Yikes. Good on them! (And, I did not need or want a coffee mug anyway - don't drink coffee....)
But I am left with the great feeling of having run a great (for me) race and setting myself up with a good summer to look forward to.
