Has it been this long since I've written here, or even visited my site. Well I guess it has. Wow! Here I am now and let's get this thing going.
2013 has been a good year for me racing. I got back into pretty okay triathlon shape and did 8 triathlons. I did a few running races too. I did a handful of sprints and 3 olympic distance triathlons. At the beginning of the season I was quite nervous and anxious about the oly distance. Now after completing a few oly's I can say I really enjoy it. I like that the swim is longer, the bike too. And, the run is not too bad. Before 2013 I had just done 2 olympic distance events, one in 2003 (my first year in triathlon!!) and one in 2009. I ended the season with 2 olympics and had fun and did well.
October was almost a full month off of training. November has been pretty good, a few hit or miss training sessions and kids were sick and I wasn't feeling well. So, December turns a new page and we're back in the game.
I did a turkey trot much like I have for the better part of the last 23 years. My first turkey trot was with my brother in 1990! With that brought a love of running and doing races.
So this Thanksgiving I did my town's local 5k. For many years I would go to Dallas for the big turkey trot, and I will go back again someday. Just the last couple of years I haven't made it down there and opted to stay close to home. It's awfully convenient. It's a lot fun to be around neighbors and the community here. I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in to this race. As I mentioned earlier, my kids hadn't been feeling especially well and I had some odd symptoms and general not feeling myself going in too. There were several zeroes on my training log before the race, so I just didn't quite know where I would stand. The night before the race though I had a 27:50 pop in my head and I sat at the computer to check out the pace calculator and see where the mile splits (8:57) needed to be. Hmmm… I thought. And, with that I went to bed.
The next morning we got up and as I opened the back door to feed the dogs a whoosh of freezing cold air hit me. Oh lordy. It was much colder than I thought it was going to be. Okay. Onwards and off I went to the race site to get my race # and all the pre-race stuff. Brrrrr…. my car thermometer read 29*. For Texas that is just downright cold. I had on shorts and some fleece pants over and a thermal running top. And hat and gloves. I was feeling quite chilly. I went and got my number and went back to the car. I sat there for a while and about 20 minutes before the start I decided I needed to do a warm up. It was much too cold out to just get at the line and go when the horn sounded. Sure way to pull a muscle or something. I ran for a little while and did some strides, butt kicks, high knees. Ran the finish hill a few times just up and back easily. Nothing major. I guess with the pre-race nerves/jitters or whatever, I just don't ever feel great in my warm ups. My legs feel heavy, breathing doesn't seem totally normal, I just feel off. I went back to the car, again, and took off the pants and ran in my shorts. I really thought about this, but am I so glad I wore shorts. It was great to run in the shorts. I definitely would have overheated had I had any more clothes on than I did.
The horn sounded and we were off! The start is a slight downhill until you make a left hand turn about 1/4 mile in. I had to dodge a few people in front of me, but after the left hand turn I seemed to find a little bit of space. Then a slight uphill and another left hand turn. At that point I looked down at my garmin and it said current pace was 9:15. Hmmm… okay. It felt a little harder than that, but I think it was the turn that was slowing me and a little traffic jam. No worries. Upcoming was a nice long downhill. I tried to just let my legs go and lean down in to the hill. At the bottom of the hill there was a right hand turn and then it was a good 150 yards uphill. At the top of the hill was the 1 mile marker. I actually have run this hill a few times in training, so I knew I could get up it well. It seemed over very quickly. I looked at my watch at the mile 1 marker and my garmin said 8:30, but only .96 miles in. A few moments later my watch beeped for 1 mile and it said 8:55. Okay. We can do this!! My goal then became to keep the mile splits under 9 minutes and go after that 27:50 I envisioned the night before. I knew then at that mile 1 marker that I was going to do well this day.
The second mile felt good. I was pushing, but under control. I would actually say this was my favorite mile. I was passing some people and just moving well. The mile was somewhat flat, a little false flat for a short section, and the mile 2 marker was again in the middle of hill this time. I got to the marker and my watch beeped 8:57. Yes!! Good!! I really maintained a good, controlled effort up the gradual incline. Then, there was another moderate downhill. I needed that for a short breather for a second. :) A little bit later I looked at my watch and recall it saying that I was at 2.4 miles in. Not much further to go. I was feeling glad there that the race was nearing over. A minute later I saw that I was at 2.6 miles and just a half mile to go. A short, but rather steep hill appeared and this was my weakest moment of the race. I took small steps going up, but just didn't have a lot of umph to those steps. I was very slow in going up, hardly faster than a walk. Luckily that part was over quickly and then we had a nice, gradual downhill for a ways. Lastly a right turn and you could see the finish line! It was on that same hill that we started on, but we had to go up this time! Darn! Mile 3 was right there and I went through 3 miles in 9:01. Almost at my goal to keep the mile splits under 9. Like I said, my weak point in the race was that hill and had I gone just a little faster I would have been under 9. The last tenth was at 7:58 pace! Go me!! :) As the finish line approached I saw a girl starting to sprint up on my right side. I stepped up my pace as best I could and I held her off! yes! That was fun!!! I came across the mat and immediately put my hands on my knees. I felt that one big time. My max HR was 187 during the race! That was the highest I've ever seen my run HR.
Per the race results, I was 7th out of 42 in my age group (30-39) and my chip time was 27:23. I ran this same race last Thanksgiving and my time was 33:27. So I ran 6 minutes faster in just one year's time! Wow!! What a great improvement!! I'm proud of this run for so many reasons. And, best of all, I had fun!!
