Cannonball Run...5k recap!!!

I had my 4th race today!! I ran the Cannonball 5k this AM. At 8:30...and it was COLD. Prob about 45 degrees I would guess??? But what a beautiful day! I didn't sleep a wink the night before...too anxious about the hills and BEING LAST as I mentioned a million time before. We did get cool technical shirts though so that made me happy...not regular crappy cotton T's but nice dri-wicking ones! COOL. So...I got up at about 10 mins till 7....did some, ahem, bathroom stuff...got my gear on (not my new shirt, it hadn't been washed yet...and you know what they say...never TRY or WEAR anything new on race day!..and of course I put my pearl earrings on, ha)....ate part of a banana and a quarter of a slice of bread and went out the door. I was so anxious I had a nervous stomach and could not eat much.

On the way to the park (which is only about 3 miles from my house) I drove up a road where the right lane was blocked off for part of the 1/2 mary to take place...and what did I do when I saw the cones? I started crying! Driving up the road past tons and tons of cones...CRYING! I am an emotional freak...but I just started thinking about how great that was that people could do that...and how wonderful they would feel afterwards...especially newbies...and thinking about my blog friend who was running a 1/2 today (and did AWESOME BTW and PR'd by 3 mins +...congrats!!!) I am nuts! Moving on....I got to the race about 7:30...an hr early. Hubbie would come later w/ OG to see me off (then head to the UVA game)and Mee Maw & Poppi would come too to watch OG while I raced. I got there and stretched and watched the 1/2 marathon racers hustle about nervously. Their race started at 8:oo. I was chatting w/ one girl and my watch said 8am. She was wearing long sleeves and she was concerned about getting too hot. I told her since it was such a short distance she should be fine. She then looked at me like I had 5 heads. So then I said "you ARE doing the 5k right?" And she said "no, the 1/2!!" I then said "GURLLLL...you better get a move on...it JUST started." She freaked...she thought it started at 8:30. She ran off like a crazy woman...didn't even have her bib on yet. I felt bad for her. But, you couldn't see the start line from where the finish line was (where we were) where everyone was waiting and getting ready for the 5k. And she must have missed the announcements about "the 1/2 is starting in 15...10...5...mins". LOL Luckily the race started about 15 mins late. When I saw her afterwards she told me she had time to get to the start, then run back up the hill close to where I was, pee in the woods in front of some people, and STILL make it to the start on time. Runners are CRAZY!

So about 8:20 I headed to the start...then I find out the 1/2 just started about 5 mins before...so we had to wait for them to get out of the park and onto the main roads. THEN there was a kids race....maybe a 1/2 mile? I was thinking "geesh, lets just get on with it...a KIDS race? are you kidding me??!!" But they were so cute and so serious and SOO proud when they ran by us 5k'ers waiting to run...we cheered and hooted and they had huge smiles! Some were so serious!!! It was great! The youngest was easily right at 4 or an old 3 yr old! Amazing! felt bad then for poo poo'ing the kids race. I will never do that again!

So then our race was on (that's me above in the center w/ my hands on my hips trying to look cool right before the start, lol)...we started at the bottom of a hill in the park. The park is about 1.6 miles around...and we had to do almost 2 loops. Hubbie had to leave before the start b/c of the late (almost 25 mins late) start, but OG & the grandparents were there to cheer me on and take pix. That was GREAT and meant a lot to me! SO we were off...the 1st mile I did in 10 mins....the 2nd mile 10 mins 10 secs...great consistent pace! I was happy.

But someting always happens to my timimg in the last mile...when there are hills. In the last 5 mins I KNEW I was not going to PR. I was not totally bummed, but a little disappointed. I knew beating 32 mins (2 weeks ago's time) would not be possible...and I thought before the race that b/c of all the hills that I would do worse than my 1st 5k in July (35:50 ish). The last few mins were hard...and old man passed me (and he had been walking all of the hills, and even said once "I hate hills" and always caught up with me after his walking) and a few kids passed me. But I was hanging in there. The was one second where I slowed my pace almost to a trot...just for ONE SEC and then I just said "this is dumb...girl, you can go faster than this...you have less than .2 miles!!! SO I put it in gear. And at the end , instead of going back to where we started to complete the 3.1 miles, we turned and went up a hard hill to the finish where we had gathered pre-race. As I looked at my watch I couldn't believe it. I was at about 31 something. As I was about at the finish the clock read 31:45 and I was thrilled. I ended up crossing the finish in 31:55 cloock time...about 31:50 my watch time (again, this race was chip timed but only the FINSH, there was no pad to cross over at the START, which is DUMB...so if you aren't first in line, you need to set your watch by when you cross over the start line to get your real time...which, depending on how big the race is, can be a few secs to a minute later than the real start time...and of course I forgot to stop my watch when I crossed the finish...but I am pretty sure my REAL time was about 5 secs+ less than clock time).

So I made it! I PR'd again!!! I HONESTLY thought I would NOT do it (ask anyone, the hills at this park are BRUTAL) and I just KNEW I would be worse than my 1st race in July...but I busted out and did it!! It was great!! I was 7th in my age group...and I joked with some people there were prob only 8 in our age group. ha OK, I just checked online...there were 11 of us in my age group, ha. I was 102'nd out of 164...so not great but HEY, I was not last as I originally feared. OK and um...an 8 yr old came in at 29 mins...and an 11 yr old, that passed me in the last mins came in at 31 mins! Those pesky kids!!! ;)

And at the finish they had bagels and peanut butter & jelly...oreos...pretzels...regular cookies...bananas...this was weird: Mike & Ikes (kind of like Jelly beans but more oblong)...water...Coke...Diet Coke...AND...Fresh Hot Steaming PIZZA!!!! At 9:30am!!! And I ate 2 pieces!!! Best pizza ever!

One more week of dramatizing (as hubbie calls it) till the next race...the big...duh duh duh....1ok next week!!!! And I was getting to be ok with it...till my friend who won 1st place in our age group (out of 11 of us , lol) just emailed me that she would see me at the Boo Bash Dash next wknd but that she was not running the 1ok...she "wasn't ready for that distance yet" LOL GREAT!!

Aprox Mileage YTD: 151.5