AM - 58°F, 55% humidity, calm - 6 miles on the Highland Canal Trail with the Michelles. For a change, they kept going and I stopped after 6 instead of the other way around. My Garmin was dead and it was just an easy run anyway, so I don't have a time or splits or pace. Noon - 72°F, 47% humdity, calm - 2 miles warm-up and then the HRCA Oktoberfest 5K. I know that 72 degrees is cool to Bonnie, but I've been running in relatively cool early morning weather all summer, and particularly the last month or so. This was tough for me. I went out too fast and it was a very hilly course, as these HRCA races always are. It was downhill for the first half mile, then up hill for a mile to roughly the midpoint of the course, then downhill for about a half mile, a steep uphill for another half mile, then a steep downhill for a little more than a quarter mile, then uphill to the end (the reverse of the start). I lined up pretty near the front and there were a bunch of little girls in front of me. I nearly tripped over one of them who wasn't quite so little right at the start. Incidentally, the overall female winner was a 10-year-old girl. She looked like she maybe weighed 80 pounds soaking wet. I went out too fast and lost time each mile. My splits were 7:12, 7:41, 7:54, with the last bit at 8:02. They tack a 100 meter dash on the end of this race and time it separately. I gave the 5K all I had and didn't feel like doing the 100 meter dash, so as soon as I crossed the finish line for the 5K, which was the starting line for the 100 meter dash, I started walking and walked the whole 100 meters. I hate 5Ks. They're too fast and too painful. Well, I guess it was a PR by 10 seconds. I'd like to find a flat 5K to run some day. I'll have to go away from home for that.
My husband, oldest son, and daughter watched the race. My daughter gave me some advice before the race. It was to keep my arms and legs moving. She also made a poster that she held up to cheer me on at the finish line. Now I've got to check out how you all did at TOU.
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