As most of you know this race was going to be the first time Kimmy and I race each other rather than running with each other. I was still a little sick when I got up for the race and was a little scared about pushing my heart rate after the spin class.
When I went to wake up Katlyn she said her back still hurt (a problem she has been having for a few months now). I knew she was feeling bad because she really wanted to run with McKenna. Anyway when I told Kim Katlyn was not going to run Kim decided to run with McKenna and I was on my own.
After we got our bags Kim and I decided to warm up for a while. I started to feel light headed again, I look at my heart rate monitor and my heart rate was 152. I was afraid that I would not be able to defend my title from last year (I won my age group). The plan was I would start out going as fast as I could and if I felt like I was going to pass out I would slow down and run with Kim and McKenna.
I started out and felt bad but I remember during spin that the feeling passed so I thought I would give it a minute and I started to feel better soon after we started. About ¾ of a mile into the race a very nice man started to run beside me. I think he thought I was a new runner and he would yell out our time from the stopwatch around his neck. This actually really helped because I didn’t need to look at my Garmin I could just run. My first mile was 7:43. I knew this was a little fast but this is the only portion of the race that was down hill and I wanted to take advantage of it. At 1.5 mile My “team mate” yelled out 12:00 even I thought if I could keep up this pace I could come in around 24 minutes I was really excited. About this time my “team mate” started to fade and I was really sad because he was so much help. I finished the second mile in 8:13 but I still felt great. At mile 2.5 I felt my lungs start to give out. I was still really congested. I guess you need to breath to run, who knew! I could here myself wheezing as I ran and people started to pass me. I just wanted to hold on until the end. I turned the corner right before the finish line and there was a lady in front of me that I though might be in my age group. I had to pass her I push and did just barely. The last mile was 8:35 with a total time of 25:01. I took first in my age group and 74th over all. Last year I finished this race in 24:59 with splits of 7:30, 8:11 and 8:23. This year they changed the start and the finish because it was too short last year so I am happy with the race over all. | 