Wacky Snacky 5k (3-4-07)

3-4-07

My first 5k since the Halloween SFX 5k in late October. || The race started at 10am which I found to be much nicer than the usual 7 or 8am start of most races. It was about 28 degrees out which was a little colder than I would have liked, but at least there wasn't much wind.

The course went through the West side of the city. Not scenic by any means, so I'll leave out details about it. 

I knew I wasn't a front runner, but I didn't want to get stuck behind people either, so I lined up about 10 feet behind the start line.  This is my 6th or 7th race, but just before the gun went off I still felt the same pre-race jitters that I did at my 1st. Do those ever go away? I kinda like them. 

I went out Friday night and thought I'd be fine if I partied till the early hours of the morning, and used Saturday to recover and be in bed early.  I realized in the fist quarter mile that I was VERY wrong.  My legs just didn't feel strong, and my breathing felt very labored. I started getting passed by a lot of people just before I hit the first mile marker. By mile 1.5 I really wanted the race to be over, but I knew that I just had to bear down and keep chugging. In near excruciating pain and discomfort, I somehow kept pushing my way through the next mile.  Even though when the finish line came into sight I had enough gas to kick out the last 200 meters, that last mile and a half was an incredible struggle.

The race is called the Wacky Snacky 5k because after the race there's a big buffet of healthy and not-so-healthy snack food. I went to town on the latter.  There were chips, doughnuts, cookies, cake, candy-bars, pizza.  All good recovery foods, right?

For some reason my Garmin didn't find a signal while I was waiting at the start, so no splits (which I'm kinda glad about)
FINISH- 20:38

I've barely been running for a year, but this was the first race that I didn't PR.  It was almost a full minute off my Halloween SFX 5k time.  I know that I need to learn how to not be disappointed when I don't PR, but it's frustrating nonetheless.  However, when I reflect on where I was 3 short months ago, and how far I've come since then, I really can't complain about my progress. Thanks for reading.