Yates 5K

Not a bad day for a run, but do I really want to get out of bed at 6:00am? Yup. I quitely slid out of bed and went down to make coffee for me and the Walrus and pull my bike off the trainer so he could warm-up with a 20 minute pre-race ride. He however; did not even get out of bed for another 20 minutes due to some nasty sinus inflammation. We packed our gear and headed for Solon High School around 7:10am. I grabbed my usual coffee and strawberry donut from D&D and wolfed it down in less than 2 minutes.

Although we were an hour early, at least 100 people were already there. We had not pre-registered and as we walked into the school apparently so hadn't many others. Normally, I do but with my leg I had been debating until that morning and now I stood about 15 people deep in line.

After getting my Bib I went to the bathroom grabbed my headphones and went out for an easy 2 mile warm-up with MT. We headed to the starting line which was the 300 meter mark on the track and found the race to be delayed until 8:45am due to lightning! MT and I did not care though. We were short and figured, it was highly unlikely we would be the ones to get hit so on with the race we thought, but no dice. We decided to jog around the track and got in a little more stretching before start time. The race finally started and I hung back for almost 2 minutes waiting for people to clear out of the gate at the 100 meter mark on the track before starting out. This was much easier to wait than try to weave my way through a couple hundred other weaving people to the exit gait. Mile 1; 8:28 split - not bad. I wasn't breathing hard and I felt really good. My body was relaxed and my leg was holding up nicely. Sweet, on to the next mile. I saw the Walrus right after that looking relaxed and in 11th place about 50 seconds behind the leader. He was going for a PR today and I was thinking he might just get it. I grabbed some water and ran around the block and back to the second mile marker. Mile 2; 8:28 split - wow and I had told myself to slow down and focus again on my breathing. I figured I had too much time to make up for a PR this race, but I figured I would at least run strong until I got to the school and then work on my kick and see if I could chase down a couple people. I saw the 4 stop signs MT and I had been joking about before the turn into the finish and could tell I was pushing the pace a little unconsciously because my stomach began to act up a little. Great, here we go. It is always something I thought. Well, NOT today. I kept my breathing steady, relaxed my shoulders and focused on moving my arms in rythm with my legs. I told myself at the gate .... "it's on, I am gonna push until the finish and not let go. I will hold on no matter how much it hurts." Well, I hit the gate and took off. I passed 1, 2 3, then 4, uuuggghhh, this is hurting I have to slow, but no I wasn't going to slow. I was going to gut this out literally if I had to. Today, puking was an option!! I crossed the finish mat and hit my split, 8:47. My total time was 25:42 and that was a PR for the year. I missed my overall PR by 2 seconds. Holy sh#t! I had run much better than I thought I could have.

I went for a quick cool-down and ran into MT and the Walrus. They both ended up with 2nd places in their AG for the day and it turns out my official time was 25:41, only 1 second off my PR time. Not too shabby for a race I had only planned on running at the last minute. I am now renewed and refreshed and ready to blow my old PR out of the water, but first I have my first sprint triathlon to tackle this Sunday with the Walrus, who is doing his first ever tri.