Training has been crap. It really has. I don't know if I'm mentally waiting for my life leaf to turn over (quitting my job May 5!) which will give me all of the time to train (... if I get focused ...), or what, but it hasn't been good. Add that in with my Dad going through some serious health problems ... well ... it doesn't make it easy.
That being said, Brandon and I still kind of wanted to do this race. We hadn't raced it in a few years and we knew that it wouldn't be anything spectacular, but we're working on accepting on where we are now as opposed to where we were or where we might possibly be in the future, so we decided to run, and not get cranky if it wasn't sub-30 or sub-10 per mile, as have been our general 5K goals for the past few years.
We got down to Cherry Creek early, but still not early enough to avoid all the road closures, so we parked on the other side of the mall than we usually do. Did. Have done. We walked to register, popped into Safeway so Brandon could grab a snack (and the bathroom), and then back to the car to stay warm for about an hour.
With about an hour to race time, we got ready to go and left the car. I knew of a couple other Skirt ambassadors running thanks to some Facebook posts that morning and I ran into Emily almost as soon as we got back to the race area.
Stolen from a FB post she made post-race. She killed it, btw, looking up her results post-race. I'm here wearing Skirt - Free Flow tank and Lioness skirt - and some SMASH - my new Team SFQ arm warmers and some SMASH compression socks.
In warming up, I also thought I saw our friend Nic running - Brandon didn't think it was her, but I totally did so I called out her name and lo and behold, it was Nic! We weren't able to catch up with her post-race, but it was great to see her as we haven't hung out in ages. Nic, I might add, won the women's 5K race and came in 9th overall. When we originally asked her about the race, she thought it went okay and was hoping for around 18 minutes. Yeah, we told her she won and did 17:53 (which was about 20, 25 seconds faster than second place).
I also managed to see another Skirt ambassador in the starting corral based solely on the outfit she posted on Facebook pre-race ... I have an uncanny knack of finding people if I know they're going to be out there. I missed a few others who I didn't know were racing, but that's probably why - if I knew they were going to be there, I'd find them.
Anyway, the race.
First mile felt pretty good. We were keeping it steady and easy ... and the first mile is so congested anyway that it's pointless trying to do anything unless you're at the front of the pack. I briefly snuck a look at my Garmin when it beeped - it was around a 10:30.
Second mile is mostly slightly downhill and we noticeably picked it up, but it didn't seem terrible. I was having a bit of a time holding on and not walking, but I managed it alright. Took another look at the beep - uh, that's dropping the pace, but too much - it was around a 9:40.
I finally couldn't hold on any longer (lungs, mostly) at around 2.6 miles in and we walked. I was so desperately trying to stay running, but I did not have the fitness to do so. We walked way more in that third mile than I think either of us would have liked, but that was the way the day shook out.
I did manage to beat Brandon by a second though, so ha.
Final Stats:
Time: 32:32
667/2165 overall
299/1332 gender
53/149 division (F30-34)
Not my fastest 5K, but definitely not my worst. It's a pretty accurate showing of where I am right now, but also a nice little wake up call since I've got some very scary shit on the schedule - Pikes Peak Ascent being the obvious one, with 70.3 Santa Cruz right behind it, but I'm also probably doing a SMASH camp in early August that I need to show up prepared for.
Cross your fingers that I figure out a way to get my ass moving again, because it seriously needs to ...
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