The race started a little further onto the bridge this year (which was nice because it kept the line of people from spilling into the street and also cut off about 0.05 worth of hill climbing at the finish). There was a drone flying around most of the morning, but this was honestly the best shot they took of the starting line (down at the gate instead of under the walkway you see in the background):
They had a photographer on the bridge, as usual, so here I am near the finish, pretending not to see the camera, yet kinda smiling and trying to look like I'm running hard (lots of race photos make people look like they're just out for a stroll). Instead, I'm heel striking and over-rotating my arms and shoulders (energy wasted!) Such bad form. Oh well, at this point I was trying to gain some ground before I hit the hill...
I ran as part of a corporate team again this year. We were missing a few of our Super Moms from last year, so we named ourselves "Lost the Pace", which is fitting because we all have a hard time maintaining a consistent pace during training runs, let alone races. (I find that if I get to run my "happy pace", I can be pretty consistent, but if I'm running with friends or racing, I'm all over the place.) My team members were Dawn, Gaurav, and Megan (and Michelle, but extenuating circumstances pulled her from the race at the last minute).
I had been training with Gaurav all through the spring and early summer,
but hadn't run with him much since June (because it's been too hot to
run at work either at lunch or after work, so I've been sticking to my
early morning runs when it's dark and slightly cooler, even though the humidity is a killer at that time of day). I knew I
couldn't keep pace with him during the race (his 5K PR is 1-2 minutes
faster than mine), but I was at least hoping to keep him in sight, since I'd been able to hang with him at my tempo pace on multiple occasions. That
only lasted until the turnaround though. He set himself a new
course/distance PR today, as did most of us. It was a good day for a
race! Cool enough, not too humid, overcast (hooray for no sun in the eyes on the return!), and breezy. We even needed light jackets after the race to not shiver in our sweaty tanks while partying along the river.
Christina and I hung together for the entire morning: through the warm-up, race, cool down, and after party. I loved getting to race side-by-side with her and I was happy that my pre-race peppiness stressed her out just enough to make her suitably nervous and pump some adrenaline into her system (she usually runs races, not races them, so it was exciting to watch her work hard - and she helped me work hard too!) We obviously didn't talk during the race (other than me calling out splits a few times and encouraging each other), but her presence was enough to keep the friendly competition alive ;-)
As usual, the after party did not disappoint. And since we already missed the 9am soccer games and the guys didn't necessarily need us at the Home Depot Kid Craft, we actually got to enjoy it all this year. We stayed for hours, enjoying the free pizza (delivered straight to our table!) and beer (2 hours of partying = enough time for 2 free beers, and it wasn't Bud Light, so major bonus there), and hanging out with our local running buddies. Good times!
When they finally tallied the results and started awards, we were on the edge of our seats. We didn't expect anything, but we were hopeful. I came close last year (taking 4th in my age group), so I knew there was a chance. I ran hard and pulled a 1:02 PR, which ended up earning me 2nd place in my age group, so I was literally squealing and skipping my way to the "stage" to stand proudly next to Ashley. I've spent the past 8 weeks training with Ashley... I am nowhere near as fast as her (she was 3 minutes ahead of me in this race, which is quite a lot over the 5-mile distance), so she is very gracious to pace me during my tempo runs, and I owe her big time (because it's really hard to get out the door at 4:45am, let alone at the prospect of running 7 hard miles before work). I've actually been VERY lucky this training cycle to have had to complete very few runs by myself. Between Ashley, Gaurav, and Christina, I seem to always find someone willing to run my prescribed pace and mileage. Thanks for that you guys! Hopefully I can keep it up for another 8 weeks and pull a PR at my goal fall half marathon. (No marathon plans for the rest of 2015, or even 2016. For now, anyway. I'm waiting to see how my back handles the bigger miles coming up this training cycle before I commit to anything more.)
I was just a wee bit excited that Ashley, myself, and Christina took our age group by storm...
(Our ERDC team came in 6th place, which was pretty cool, since there are some SPEEDY teams in this town. And some all-male teams in the line-up, which are especially hard to beat.)
Since I LOVE this race more than any other local race and will keep running every year that I'm able to, I have to go ahead and record my yearly time comparison. And also because it just feels SO GOOD to see evidence that all the interval and tempo training and long runs really are improving my speed and endurance. I may never be as fast as I was back in high school, but I know I can keep dropping these splits if I keep working at it!
2013 Splits: 8:14, 8:29, 8:33, 8:56, 8:40 (42:52)
2014 Splits: 8:06, 8:22, 8:35, 9:24, 8:55 (43:19)
2015 Splits: 8:02, 8:13, 8:22, 8:45, 8:19 (41:50)
Official results here.
(Yeah, I blew up a bit at mile 4, as usual. In my defense, that's where the hill is located to get back on the bridge, and almost nobody negative splits this course because of it. I was honestly just very proud of myself for not walking a single step this year... I tend to go out too fast in shorter races and then just can't hold it. I tried really hard to pace myself better today, and since I was aiming for 8:20/mile and I managed to hit that twice, I'll call it a win. Plus, I pulled it together for that last mile and ran my fastest split there yet, regardless of the slight decrease in length of the final hill to the finish chute.)
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