Monday, August 13, 2012

Crawfish Crawl 5K

I have thought about it a lot and I'm going to stop pouting and be happy with it. It was the Crawfish Crawl 5K. I'll just cut to the finish line where I'm pretty sure in the finisher's photo you can read my mouth saying a colorful word starting with an F and ending with an Uck. And then I dry heaved twice while waiting to get out of the chute. And then I cried.

Cilley Girl, Man Friend and I were up early and heading to this park area with a pond for the start of the Crawfish Crawl... another non-chip timed race. Ugh. We very quickly met up with Kim who was there to cheer and volunteer (if volunteering means getting group photos and taking finisher photos!). I wasn't nervous at all. Seems my days of terrible pre-race nerves might be behind me for the most part. Oh, yeah, um, so I made MF be matchy matchy with me. My mom found it nauseating. I got as close as I could to the start line and soon it was time.


And nobody moved. WTF?? I'm being timed here lazy asses!! If you wanted to leisurely walk yourself to the start line then stand behind me. As close as I was to the start it was over 6 seconds for me to get to the official line. When it comes to ME and the 5K race distance ... I watch every single second!


The course was actually flat. I can't say it was fast because for me I know why I was mad at the finish. I should have had that PR I was fighting so hard for. But when you take a narrow pathway and put two directions of traffic on it, add in non-racers that are just there on a weekend stroll or bike ride, mix in racers that aren't really sharing the path .... for me it was pretty crowded and therefore not "fast". I did like the course though. It had a lot of turns in it so you never really knew where you going to go. That kept the mystery alive, but also made tangents hard since it was so crowded and 2-way traffic.

That whining aside, I ran great. I felt relaxed physically and mentally. I used this older man as my pacer until it got crowded and I had to make a power move to free myself from the group. He was good for keeping me from going out too fast like I saw MANY people doing. We were passing walkers that were already tired after not even a quarter of a mile. So we played it smart and stayed steady, faster, smooth but not too overzealous. I had negative splits for the entire race which made me happy!

MF asked how I was near the end. I couldn't answer. I was at the point where I thought I was going to be sick or mentally just collapse. He decided to not take off to the end and instead stayed right behind me yelling at me the whole way encouraging me to pick off other runners 1 at a time. I flew around the corner and was in full sprint mode to the finish line. Kim was there with her camera and as disappointed as I was that I was losing the PR by seconds, I still mustered up a smile for her! So clearly I didn't get the PR -- BUT I was still sub-30. So for me that's great and I am thrilled! I was probably greedy wanting 3 5K PRs in a row. And Kim made the good point - I'm not training for speed right now. I just had a 20 mile run in the heat and have been working on long and steady. To expect to just switch it up and run faster and faster isn't exactly practical for this body.

Kids, don't read the words that are coming out of my mouth!! 
I left the race happy! Everybody had a great run. It was so fun to see the whole gang again. I had a yummy bagel. And MF got me a free back-pack (because you can never have too many free bags) to cheer me up! (The yummy breakfast with Strawberry Shortcake didn't hurt either!) Best of all my body felt great - no leg cramps like the last 5K race, and the afternoon pool trip really helped my muscles relax and go to bed happy!

And that's that. Next race report ... The Prefontaine Memorial 10K!

8 comments:

  1. Yes, greedy for 3- 5k PRs in a row! Haha, who does that? So glad to meet up with you guys again. What a fun race to spectate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sub-30?? Good lord you are FAST to me! I can't believe your next is the Prefontaine?!? AAAAH. Nerves! It's coming up SO fast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I need to get my butt in gear on getting ready for Pre - that one, as you know, is a race like none other ... freaking HARD!!!!

      Delete
  3. Wow!! Sub-30?! I can only dream of being that fast! Loved the matchy-matchy outfits!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you like the matchy matchy - sure made him easy to find!

      Delete
  4. Sub-30 is my nemesis right now so good for you running a sub-30 5K!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LoVE reading your course info here! I was wondering if it was long, short, 3.11 ?? Starting behind slow people in a non-chip timed race that has a narrow opening is asking for a Non-PR...BUt you knew that :)
    You are doing 20 milers already? When is your marathon again??

    I am not sure about Pre yet. I need to figure out if it will work out well with my 5k training. Would like another good race, but never a guarantee! It's nice to have ran it once now though. If I run it, I would like to meet up again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. October 7th is marathon day! I'm doing the coolrunning.com beginning marathon training plan. It had every other week an increase, then the off weeks are nice and back off a bit. I really like it. It's make building up to the 20 mile runs seem not scary at all!

      Delete

Thanks for reading my little blog, your comments rock my compression socks!! ºoº