The Results Are In!

Okay, I know I know, it's been two weeks and maybe we were expecting a quicker update- well the sponsors put pictures up on their website that are taken during the race, so I was waiting to see if we'd have any winners for photographic accompaniment. My running face is less attractive than we might have hoped though, and so we're going to post on circulating those any further. So instead you just get the afters: 

Mary and I with the giant inflatable hot chocolate mug

And of course- showing off our muscles 

All right, so I will recap the day- we leave Mary's house at 6:00 AM (special shout out thank you to her lovely housemate Megan, who woke up at 5:45 on a Sunday morning to drive us there so we could avoid public transportation!). We arrived at the museum (where the race began) at about 6:20 and determined why it was that the freebie was a fleece and not a t-shirt...because the fact that it is Spring means nothing to the weather makers, so we had to stand out in I believe 39 degree cloudiness until start time at 7:15. (Fortunately we found refuge in the merchandise tent where we warmed up while waiting for the race to start and only moved to the concourse at 7:05. GREAT CALL!)

Five minutes before the race begins I turn to Mary and I say, "Okay. Goals: finish in less time than my last race, and don't walk a single step." She replies, "Goals: Keep breathing, survive, and finish the race". [Mary falsely led me to believe that this run would be a challenge to her...LIES!] Standing in place waiting, music goes into my ears, and we're off. 

Now, I have no internal pacer- in that I think some people have this ability where without a watch or timed music or any gauge they still know their general pace. For me, that's not the case. I couldn't tell you if I'm running a 10 minute pace or a 15 minute pace. People are passing you and you're passing others. I always wait to the first mile and check my time to see if I'm on track. 

Now at this particular race, they released the runners in waves to help spread out the runners. So they released a new wave every 3 mins. And we were in the fourth wave. So, one of the happiest and then suddenly worst moments of the race is as follows: this course is one where you run half the distance and then turn around and run back the other half (not a loop in other words). So we're running along, I've lost track of time, I'm listening to music and reminding myself to breathe steadily and not go too hard in the first mile. I have no idea how far we've gone when all of a sudden a quick stream of runners is whooshing by us in the other direction. Now, when I see people going in the other direction, my thought is always, "they've turned around! That means we must be almost halfway!" And then the reality follows a few seconds later- they were released 9 minutes before us and are keeping a 6 minute/mile pace. Aka- we've got a *long* way to go. 

But, despite the colder-than-I-prefer-to-run-in weather, and an earlier-than-I-prefer-to-run start time, and a chocolate fondue finishers mug when I've given up chocolate for lent- the race really was wonderful. The course stretched along the river so we had a beautiful view. It was really, maybe my favorite race to date (not just because of the great company!). Oh and for the results: well, I didn't take a single step of walking during this 3.1 mile excursion. So check mark for that goal. And below is my updated overall list or races and results:

DATE                                                     RACE                      TIME

7/4/2013				Firecracker 5k		39'32"
7/14/2013				Biggest Loser 5k		37'36"
9/7/2013				9-11 Memorial 5k		36'33"
10/12/2013				Amnesty 5k		34'30"
4/6/2014				Hot Chocolate 5k		32'18"

So all goals were met. Who knew that that's actually something that can happen? 

Until next time, 

Rachel