St Paddy's Day 5k (3-17-07)

3-17-07

I never sleep well the night before a race. Start time was 9am, had the alarm set for 7:30, woke up at 6 . Shook off the sleepiness, did the whole pre-game routine, donned my green long-sleeve shirt, and I was out the door.

The start-line was only about a mile from my place , so I used that as a warm-up. When I got there I realized quickly that I wasn't the only one who decided to wear green.  It was about 29 degrees with 15mph winds, not ideal, but definitely could be worse. 

Everyone lined up at the start, and when the person on the loudspeaker announced 1 minute till the horn, the butterflies come on like clockwork.  I lined up about 5 feet behind the line. I thought that'd be close enough, but there were still people who started up close that were moving slow as hell. After I finished weaving, I fell into a groove and really felt good. What a difference it makes not partying so hard 2 nights before the race 

A mile into it and I really couldn't believe how much better I was feeling compared to my last 5k. The pain was definitely there, but nowhere near as intense. I think there's a lot to be said about positive reinforcement, I kept telling myself over and over how great I felt. But by about 1.5 miles in, I really started to feel fatigued. I refused to let it get to me, and kept pushing on. Got passed a few times 

When the 3 mile marker came into sight, I broke away from a pack and really started to kick.  There was a guy about 20 feet ahead of me, and I just went balls out and caught him a few feet from the finish line .  I think I really need to work on the strategy of finishing though, because there's no way I should have been able to kick that strong. I kinda wonder if I didn't push myself hard enough in the last mile.  

My Garmin actually worked this time, so here are the splits...

Mile 1- 6:18
Mile 2- 6:45
Mile 3- 6:49
0.1- 0:42
Finish- 20:35

I told myself that my only goal was to beat my last race time of 20:38. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not in the kind of shape I was in when I ran the marathon and before I got hurt. And while I'm relatively happy with today's time, I'm nowhere near satisfied.  But I think being unsatisfied is a big part of what keeps me striving for more. I have pretty serious long-term ambitions, and I'm so hungry when it comes to this shit.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your unending support.