Race #2 of the Season: Cherry Creek Sneak

No pictures this time; just the two of us running and I didn't even think of bothering with my camera. Sorry, guys. Also: this week has been weird, so that's why no blog on Monday. I may do a second this week though ... we'll see ...

Anyway, race! We like running the Cherry Creek Sneak - it was the first ever race Brandon ran - and as it's the unofficial start to the Colorado racing season, we like running it. We haven't yet done the 10-miler but have done the 5-miler twice and the 5K a whole bunch of times. This year was a 5K year. 

The weather is usually pretty good for this race. Unfortunately, this year, it appears as though I bring the bad juju to race day as just like Big Sky, the weather was awful. Cold, windy, rainy ... just blah. As a result, our pre-race routine was the following:

- Get to Cherry Creek; park

- Get registered

- To Safeway to get Brandon a banana and Gatorade

- To the car to STAY WARM

- Eventually get ready, head to porta potty and then to start line

It was hard to get a good handle on how many people actually ran because everyone stayed away from the start corral until the last possible moment due to the weather. Thanks to this, though, we were able to start fairly near the front. Woo.

Mile 1:

We made sure to take this mile "easy" - I like to call it going "comfortably uncomfortable" - I've heard that phrase around a lot and I like it in terms of how to race/train. For a 5K that we didn't really have any expectations going into, I felt like that was a good way to take it. In any case, the pace felt pretty good. Garmin said pace was: 9:05.

Mile 2:

I felt a bit better than Brandon in this mile and it showed in how we ran - staggered, with me slightly ahead. I made sure to stay with him, but it wasn't quite with him. Pace still toeing the line of uncomfortable, but still not bad. Garmin said pace was: 8:56.

Mile 3.1:

This is the mile where we kinda fell apart. The baby hill for the mini out-and-back caused us to walk a bit and from that point on, I couldn't hold the comfortably uncomfortable anymore. It was almost like I reverted back to being like I was years ago - in a run, if I could just keep running, I'd be fine, but if I started walking, the run automatically became a run/walk. That's not necessarily the case anymore, but it was on this day. Walked three more times for a total of four in the final mile. Brandon started the pick-up a bit too early and if I didn't want to die, I had to go with him ... dropping my pace into the 6:30s for the finish line. Garmin said pace was: 9:39 (mile 3), 6:31 (mile .14).

Final Stats:

Time: 28:31

Pace: 9:12/mi

Overall Rank: 428/2971

Gender Rank: 158/1871

Division Rank: 25/262 (F30-34)

For hoping to do sub-30 and that being my only goal going in? I'm pretty content with this.