Saturday, September 13, 2008

2008 Heart for Africa 5K

Easy warm-up on the course before the race with Hugh. We ran it backwards from what we were doing during the race since we didn't know we were running in reverse this year. I felt achy and legs didn't feel fresh. When we got done we had 10 minutes to start.

I drank an Amp and hoped that I would feel better. I was happy to hear we were running the course in reverse from last year so we didn't have the steep hill after the first mile. Instead we had a gradual hill in the first mile. I lined up behind 2 guys since I didn't want to start too fast. We started down a hill and it seemed like a fast start but I held back the pace to keep it over 6 min. In the first mile I passed ten or so people. It started to rain a little and stopped. Amazingly I was feeling 100% better than during the warm-up. The temperature (74F) was warm for a 5K and humid but I didn't feel like it bothered me.

In the second mile, I could see a woman in front of me but didn't seem to be getting much closer. I flew down the hill right before the trail. Once I got to the trail in the third mile I was gaining on her and passed her. Then I had my sights on a guy I remembered from last year. He isn't in my age group, but I remember him passing and beating me last year. This year he was slowing and I passed him.

I was hoping I could keep the pace just a little longer. Then I see Dan jump into the race to pace me running ahead of me so I am trying to keep up. He runs with me and Mike D. (not in costume) is just outside one of the tunnels near the end and goes crazy cheering. After 0.3 mi he jumps out of the race and says I am on my own. He had already run 15 miles! I am almost near the end so sprint about as fast as I can to the finish.

I felt good at the end. I placed 5th overall out of 113 and 1st in age group. Hugh placed 2nd in his age group and 16th overall. What I thought was going to be a really crappy race turned out great.

m1 - 6:10
m2 - 5:53
m3 - 6:02
0.12 - 0:37 (5:32 pace)

Total Time: 18:43

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