I won!
Well, OK, no. Not really.
I did PR, but just by 4 seconds. Still. Better'n a poke in the eye. And, as with every race, I learned some new things about my body and what it can do.
The short story, for those who don't care about the rest: 26:52 (my last 5K, July 4, was 26:56), no injuries or nuttiness, well-organized for the most part, with tasty snacks at the end. BART turns out to be such a spiffy way to get to races that I'm thinking of running the 7K distance of the Bridge to Bridge run in two weeks as a non-race run.
The longer story is that I can run faster for longer than I thought. I ran a 7:48 pace half mile at the start to try to make up for the incredibly slow first quarter mile (seriously - people? There was an untimed race, too...why not run that if you're going to stroll?!!). And several long stretches between 8:00 and 8:20. In the end, though, my lack of long runs over the past several months was my downfall. The last mile was at just under 9:00, which was sad. I was hoping to never go slower than 8:40.
Other than not finishing in, oh, 20:18 or something like that, my major complaint was traffic control at the start and finish of the race. The crowds were stupid slow for the first quarter mile and also at the tiny turnaround (and yep, I *was* near the front). Then runners had to come to a dead stop, DEAD STOP, immediately after crossing the mat to have their chips removed.
As someone with a hair-trigger puke urge that flairs up when I sprint, I'm just sayin'. You really don't want to be removing my chip when my HR is 194, OK? It's dangerous. Give me 100 yards or so to bring it down. (This was my first chip-timed race. Next time I will probably just pocket the thing or pin it to my hat. Now I know.)
That's it. Off tomorrow, back on the training wagon Tuesday, with increased mileage. Goal race is the Livermore Grape Stomp 10K on 10/26.
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2 comments:
Congrats! A four second PR is better than no PR, especially since your training hasn't gone that well.
Also -- one tip -- you do need to wear your chip near the ground if you want the mats to pick it up. If you put it in a hi-level pocket or above, there's a good chance they won't. You could also buy one of those "shoe pockets" and just slip it in there.
If you really want to be hot shit, you can buy your own ChampionChip. Then you can go off and puke comfortably with no further obligation.
Now go have some ice cream!
Congrats! I'm going to echo Julie twice in that a PR is a PR, and also that you have to wear your chip on your shoe. However, one alternate solution is skip the chip clip and then come back a few minutes later once you've recovered - I did this once (by accident).
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