Beresford 125th Celebration 5k

Pre-Race Goals
(goals written pre-race)
*Run a pain free race.  This is honestly the only goal I truly care about.  If I have no hip pain, I know the time goals are 100% possible.

A) 22:xx  Danielle and I both have a goal to hit in the 22's for the summer on a 5k.  Why not do it out of the gate right?  I know it's possible for me to get this time, I honestly don't know if it's possible in this race given the little speed work I was able to do post marathon pre-hip pain.  We'll see!

B)  23:30  After reading through my race report from my PR race from last summer (yes my PR is almost a year old, no fun!) I was shooting for this time (7:30 pace), for that race.  Since I didn't get it, why not shoot for it!

C) Sub 24.  My current PR is 24:02.  So. Darn. Close. I'd like to say adios to the 24's.

D) Place in the top 10 for women, and top 3 for my age group.  If the field is as slim as last year, top 5 for women, and win my age group.  Winners of age groups get gift certificates to my favorite running store in town...uh score!

Race

I woke up early on Saturday morning knowing I had to go to the grocery store to by my pre-race banana, and get picture frames to complete gifts to my parents.  Since the race wasn't until 10:30am, I had a ton of time.  After getting all of my errands done, I headed down south to the race (about 40 miles away).  Roughly about halfway there my car started shaking uncontrollably and making a horrible sound, so I pulled over to the side of the interstate.  I also started to smell burnt rubber, so I had a feeling I knew what was going on.  Holy blown tire Batman!  It was seriously shredded.  I'm not sure if I ran something over, or what, but that puppy was destroyed.  Of course I started freaking out, because I don't know how to change a tire.  Now, I know if I *had* to do it, I could.  The time frame for completion would be hours.  At least.  So I did the logical thing:  started flagging down help.  Thank God that I chose to wear the electric green shirt, right?

Luckily a guy and his family pulled over, and he got to work helping me change my tire changing my tire.  I paid insanely good attention, so next time it will not be as big of a crisis.  After he got my spare tire on there, and lowered the car back down, we realized that the spare was very very low.  As in, too low to drive on.  So Mr. Savior jacked the car back up, put my tire in his vehicle, and drove it to the nearest gas station (probably 10 miles away) to fill up with air.  Meanwhile I'm tweeting like a fool, and text Jenn to not bother to come to my race because I'm stuck on the side of the road and am not sure if I'm going to make it.  She had ran a 10k at 8am in Iowa, and was going to trek to Beresford to watch me run before we started our day of post-run awesomeness.  I told her where I was, and it was at that moment that she crossed the Iowa/SoDak border and realized she was just north of me.  We decided she'd come get me, and we'd leave my car on the interstate to pick up later.  Super nice dude came back, put my tire on, I professed my undying thanks to him and he left.  And I chilled in my car waiting for Savior #2.  After Jenn got there, we hauled ass to get to my race so I would have time to stretch.  (I had left ridiculously early for the race so I could stretch TONS to hopefully make the hips feel a-ok.)  Somehow we still got to the packet pick up with 30 minutes to stretch and get ready for the race!  Yay.

The race was super small, and looking at the competition there were a few young pups (aka skinny HS XC b's :P).  I taught my dad how to use my digital camera 15 minutes before the race, so I had double the paparazzi as normal.  Whoo!  We started off and there were about 5 guys ahead of me and one girl.  I was thrilled that my hip did not hurt at all.  Thrilled and shocked, but I'll go with it (because I was up so early, I did an awesome yoga for runners podcast I've been trying to do regularly that emphasizes stretching the hips, and I think it's working, hurrah!).  About half of a mile into the race a girl that was about one step behind me, starting running along side of me.

Mile 1 7:24

I got to mile 1 on pace for Goal A but knew I didn't have it in me to keep that up for another 2.1 miles.  At this point I was about 15-20 seconds behind the first place girl, and another youngster and dude passed me and the other chica by.  I told the girl running with me, that she couldn't let that chick beat her, so she sped up.  Hah.  Don't leave me!  The middle mile was pretty wide open, and without anyone around it was a smidge windy.  I tried to just focus on my stride and keep pushing.  I glanced at my garminPop's photographing me in the background.)

Mile 2 8:02

Poop nuggets.  After analyzing my last 3 5k's, I noticed that I always run over 8 minutes for my 2nd mile, and was really shooting to run under that for this race.  At least I was barely over.  The third mile Jenn was there waiting for me, and was going to try to push me to keep going strong.  She put herself just a ways in front of me to push me, and I was dead freakin' tired.  There was times I just wanted to quit the race and claim that my hip hurt.  I forgot how bad 5ks hurt!  Holy crap.  I kept pushing, and trying to figure out if I could catch the chica in front of me or not.  When we got to the 1/4 mile mark Jenn yelled out that I needed to use my sprinter skills and kick it in (or something to that effect!).  I pushed it as hard as I could into the finish.

Mile 3 7:53
.1  :35 (6:48 pace)

5k in 23:55 for a pace of 7:43.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch, glanced at it, and yelled out a YIPPEE (seriously.... I'm the biggest dork evah!).  A PR by the skin of my teeth is still a PR in my book.  :)  So a review of the goals, Goal C:  check!  PR for the day.  I finished 9th place overall, 4th place female, and 1st place in my age group (20-29).  Goal D:  check!  And most importantly I was pain free.  Mega Goal:  Check!  My cardio level definitely struggled in this race.  Looking at my training, I've only had about 2 weeks (once you take out all the rest days for semi-injury) of training post-marathon, so I shouldn't expect my body to be in speed work shape.  But I love that it gives me a goal to keep working toward, because 22:xx will happen this summer, yo.  Hopefully this will only be my PR for a couple of weeks!!

Post race we had a photo shoot, obviously.

Absolutely super fans:  my parents.  I was bummed.  I bought them bright green TEAM GREEN shirts that I was giving them for Father's Day/madre's birthday, and they didn't come in quick enough. :( Good thing I race a lot, they'll still get some use out of em. ;)  They were at 4 different place along the course route, and in a 5k that is legit, let me tell you!  Love that they support me as much as they do. :D

And Miss Jenn who saved me in a thousand ways before 11am.  Impressive fo sho.  Love her.  She rocked her 10k btw, but I don't want to steal her thunder, so you'll have to check out her blog for her report. :p

Post race, off to pick my car up off the side of the interstate and then enjoy some sun and Skinny Dip beers at the waterpark.  I heart race days. :D