Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Autumn Leaves..any guesses how far?

I had put in my biggest week ever, but avoided hills and speedwork with the exception of this race. My body had definitely taken a beating for the week and I even added some cross-training by going to the state cross country meet to run around and scream for my boyfriend's kids (Mentor High School).

By the time I returned home at 8:30pm on Saturday night I was whipped and wondering if I had enough mentally and physically to take on a race Sunday. I turned my clock back one hour hoping that would be enough, but when the alarm went off at 7:00am I really wished I had to turn it back one more.

I left the house around 7:50 to head to the Farmpark, which is about 20 minutes away thinking I would have lots of time to warm-up. I knew the race was through fields and there were some hills, so it would not be a PR. There were also land mines (cow manure) pretty much everywhere!!

I however, managed to get lost, having never driven there before and forgetting the directions at home. I tried to call my boyfriend, but he was out warming up. I was about to give up all hope when I found it!! But I only had 15 minutes to race time. Luckily, my boyfriend had registered me and all I had to do was hit the bathroom and pin on my Bib. I did not again get a warm-up. I felt bad for being so late and I was really cold without a warm-up standing at the start, but I needed to get in the mileage and at a hard pace.

I went out slow as was the plan with or without the warm-up. I figured people would die off and I would just pick it up and try and pass them after mile 3. It would be a smart plan. I was passed by a lot more people than normal and even looked back to make sure I wasn't last, but as soon as we hit the first pasteur I started moving up. My garmin clipped off the first mile, but the first mile marker for the race was .1 farther. No biggie, Garmins can be off a tad.

Mile 2 was half on a road/trail and half through another field. Now my Garmin was off by .15 and I was getting slower. I was at this point, not happy. I had already passed a few people, but most were holding their positions.

The next mile went through a corn row!! I ended up in a pack of 6, which my teammate was leading. It was too narrow to pass so we ran single file. Once, out of the corn I passed 4 of them and realized I really needed to go to the bathroom again! Oh poop!! Mile 3 was by far my slowest and off by .18.

I finally caught my teammate just after 3 and worked my way through a few more grassy hills. I took the uphills and downhills at a lower intensity than normal as I was cautious of aggravating my hip flexor. I was still feeling good and passing people. Garmin beeped for mile 4 and yet again the mile marker was up ahead. The guy called out a time I can't even remember and I managed to muster his mile markers were way long.

The last mile was winding through a barn and mostly on pavement or dirt trail so after the grassy pasteurs it felt so fast! My foot turnover felt like I was flying! I sailed around the corner and BEEP mile 5 39:06, but the finish was yet another .26 miles farther!!! Blah! Disappointed the race was so inaccurate I finsihed up in 41:00.

Splits as per my Garmin
1 - 7:46
2 - 7:40
3 - 8:15
4 - 8:04
5 - 7:20
.26 - 1:53

And the weirdness continues. Lets hope this all stops by the time Philly hits.

1 comment:

Janet Edwards said...

I remember that race last year and how slow my time was....perhaps the mileage was off that year too. In either case it looks like you managed a solid effort once you finally made it there!