CIDA 5K Race: Setting a Low Bar For 2009

It was cold (33 F, just above freezing) and very windy but I showed up to race anyway. It was one of those cold, gray mornings but at least we were spared the rain that was forecast!

I walked .5 miles and jogged 1.5 to try to get ready to go; I recognized a few people.

I started reasonably far back and was off; we ran into a wind and up a shallow incline. I decided to run along side Pat O’Bryan as I wanted to maintain the type of pace that she normally does; eventually I passed her and she remarked that I was good to draft off of.

I was to see her and Terry Whitehead later.

Nevertheless I pushed up the small hill and hit mile 1 in 8:02; not that stellar. I felt ok and my stomach was holding out ok. Mostly I suffered from a lack of running that fast; this was my fastest mile since December 2008. I pushed on and knew that it only a matter of 3-4 minutes before we would turn around and have the wind at our backs.

I aimed at the pack ahead of me and managed to catch some; just “aim for the cutest pantylines and spandex someone and try to hold on” I thought.

Finally we turned onto the trail and I resolved to catch someone; I didn’t.

Still mile 2 came at 15:58 but I was all but out of gas. Still I managed to hold my position until about .5 miles to go when a couple of young teens as well as Pat and Terry caught me. I could see the clock tick to 24 and I knew that I was going to be under 25, hence I let up a little. I just had no desire to confront the pain much less break through it.

My final time was 24:41; 19 seconds slower than my race in December. But I did lose 6 pounds this week due to my lower intestinal troubles; that couldn’t have helped my performance.

And what the heck: I set a rather low bar for the rest of the year; it should be easy to improve upon this performance.

On the bright side, I did “win” a 20 dollar gift certificate to One World as a door prize.

Update: place was 51 out of 224:

Note: I was supposed to be running.