I checked the temperature before I left for the race, and it looked like it would be fairly warm, so I wore just one shirt, but I brought my ear band thingie even though I didn't wear it initially. When I got there, it felt quite cold because of the wind. The temperature was 40°, but the wind was 12 mph. I had to park quite a ways away because there were lots and lots of people at this race. I walked from my car to the packet pickup area and got my bib, timing chip, and shirt, and then walked back to my car. I had a sweatshirt on then, but I didn't want to run in it and it felt like it would be too cold with just one shirt, so I put on the race shirt (a long sleeved T) over my first shirt and pinned the number to the race shirt. I put on my gloves and ear band thingie. I was able to use a park bathroom near where I parked with no line because it was so far from the race start, then I ran a 2 mile warmup around the park. I could tell at that point that I would be too warm when the wind was behind me, but I didn't have time or want to go to the trouble of moving the bib to my first shirt. I went over and lined up not too far behind the start line. Still, it took me 22 seconds to get to the start line when the race started. It was quite crowded at the start, which made it difficult to get going very fast for the first little while. Roughly the first mile and a half was mostly uphill, but not steep. I had to push to keep a decent pace, but I knew the downhill was coming. The second half of the race was mostly downhill, so I was able to pick up the pace a bit and finished fairly strong. I should have gone with my initial plan to wear just one shirt, because I ended up being too warm for most of the race. I just took my gloves off and carried them. There wasn't time to make any more drastic wardrobe modifications. This race was painful and I would have liked to quit, but I just kept telling myself that it would be over soon and forced myself to keep going. And I managed to have a kick at the end. Average pace was 7:29. Splits were 8:02, 7:30, 7:02, with the last 0.1 at 6:33 pace. After the race, I collected some food and my swag bag and hung around for a bit and then walked back out to my car. By that time, people were leaving, so I moved my car closer to the race finish and then got out and ran 3 miles at an average pace of 9:31 so that I would have 8 miles for the day. By the time I finished, they had results posted, so I checked and saw that I was 6th in my division, so I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony. I needed to get home and get cooking. I suppose it was a fun race, but it wasn't that exciting for me. I went to the race by myself and did not have anyone to cheer me or meet me at the end. I'm not having a pity party. I'm just saying that I just went and ran and then came home, and that's about all there was to it. They had a kids fun run, but I missed it because I was off exploring neighborhoods on my 3 mile run.
I should be happy. It was a 5K PR by almost a minute. I've got the Colder Bolder 5K a week from Saturday, so I'll see how I do then. I think that my friend Michelle is going to come do that with me, though we will be in different waves, so that won't be as lonely. Also, it shouldn't be as crowded because of the waves, so I'll have to see if I can run any faster there.
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