Mars Band 5k - 5.19.12

On Saturday, I ran a 5k. I ran the same 5k 2 years ago.  I was really hoping for a personal record at this race and really thought I could do it. I thought I could do it so much that I even told people about it. And if you know me, you know that is big. I usually don't even like to tell people I'm about to run a race.

I wasn't nervous Friday night or Saturday morning. I used to hate how I was so nervous but I was realizing I really missed my nervous-self.

Prior to the race, I had to get the prizes ready for NA-YGN prizes but I still wasn't even stressed at all about that working out right. Paulo was meeting us at our house and then we were carpooling and yet I still didn't stress when they were lost on the way without a GPS.

I met up with people I knew in after I registered and before the race started.  I wanted to warm-up but barely did that.  I figured it would all be OK. I usually don't have that feeling.

I started out with Adrienne.  My friend, Brie, was taking some race photos but I didn't know if she was on the left or the right and I couldn't see her as I ran by so I thought she might have totally missed me (she didn't) yet that didn't stress me out at all.  Brie got pictures of a bunch of NA-YGN runners by taking a ton of pictures and hoping for the best.  Neither of us knew what everyone looked like. Also some of the people we knew what they looked like, we still had trouble recognizing them in their running clothes versus their work clothes.

We were near an 8 minute pace which is about what I was shooting for but I kept thinking I would run out of steam the last mile going up hill so I kept reserving some.  In past races I have had a 7:10 first mile and then a 9 minute 3rd mile and I didn't want that.

I ran the first 2 miles with Adrienne. I talked to her a little. I pointed out my house to her.  After 2 miles I felt like I was struggling and almost told her to go ahead. Right then she told me that I knew the rules and I go ahead if I could run faster. Well she said that and I figured I knew that slow uphill grade so I went slightly ahead of her.  I was picking up my pace going up the hill.  I didn't pick it up enough but I was going and passing people right and left. When you pass people you forget you are still behind what you want to do.  I talked to some guy with about a half mile left after he told me I had a good end of race pace.  His goal was 25 minutes. My goal was 24:30 but I told him I was missing that.  I was running the last quarter mile and just couldn't figure out if I was running as fast as I could. I didn't think so. I wanted someone to push me along. My mind was wandering.   With a hundred or so yards left the announcers said Tom Henry was coming in. He said he'd donate $1 for every runner that beat him during the race. The announcers were talking about it so I got motivated. I really kicked it into high gear (faster than 6 min pace) and passed him with about a second to spare.

I finished with a time of 24:49. I didn't stop my timer until the end of the finishing shoot. I was going too fast and couldn't even stop.  I didn't get a PR but the other course was short according to my Garmin and this was sanctioned so maybe it is kind of like a real PR.  I really want to run another 5k now. I really want a PR.  I felt like for this race I wanted to be awesome but I was still fatigued from the marathon. My calves were also sore at the start. I'm not sure why they were sore. That was something new.

After I finished I was talking to Tyler and Tom Henry came up to me to tell me how I got him at the end.

I didn't place in my age group because of putting in NA-YGN teams and them bumping me out.

Dave ran it too.  After I was done, I talked to a few people and was going to run and meet Jen but she ended up ahead of what I thought so I almost missed her.  Then I talked a little more and then ran to meet up with Dave.  I did the last 2/3 of a mile with him. I ran slightly off course at the end to get to my camera and get pictures of him.  He did better than he thought he would.

After the race I had to wait for the team times to be ready. That took too much time. I would have loved to do my awards prior to the official awards.  I had different prizes ready to go (shown above). I also had certificates ready (examples below).

The official awards started and I was only half listening because I had to analyze all the team awards to find out what teams got what for NA-YGN.

An NA-YGN member won overall for females.  My team won the female team award. Then 6 other individuals won age group awards.  We were well represented.  Actually our male team should have won but one of our runners chips did not register. (I have since emailed the race director and they are updating everything and said they would reissue medals. I don't think the team cared about the medals but I bet they'd like online to be updated since people eye up the times in future years.) NA-YGN did awesome.

Too bad official awards took so long because I didn't do my NA-YGN awards as officially. People had to leave. I tried to move around and give people their awards but I probably only got about half.