Great Harvest Bread Co 5k

I woke up at 529am (before my alarm) due to Cicero pawing on my legs as though they were a horizontal scratching post. Although this isn’t something too far out of the ordinary, it was still quite annoying because I had wanted those extra four minutes of sleep. I jumped out of bed, braided my hair, and climbed up the stairs to brew up some oatmeal. Supposedly I was clinking the spoon so hard against the bowl that it woke John up, who had unintentionally set his alarm for 5:30pm as opposed to am. Good thing I’m a clinker because he got up and ready in just the nick of time.

The two fastest roommates in Charlotte were out the door right on time and we parked at the South County Library, about a half mile from the start, in an effort to avoid being towed from the Piper Glen Shopping Center. John and I walked down to pick up our chips, made a porta-potty pit stop, and met Aaron at the start line to warm up. We enjoyed a nice easy three miles and made our way back up to the car to grab our flats.

At the start line, I did a couple of drills, wiped the massive amounts of sweat off of my face, and looked around for a good spot to position myself on the starting line. I chose to be on the exact opposite side of where all the fast guys were standing so that I wouldn’t get tempted to drop a 5:20 (like Billy Shue did).

Practically out of nowhere, Meagan Nedlo appeared and we discussed a semi-race plan together, which I threw out the window at the start because I guess I think I’m in better shape than I actually am. We had discussed doing a 5:50 first mile and then dropping from there. The start was delayed because a shuttle bus was late, so in those five minutes, the runner next to us slapped his face REALLY hard to pump himself up. With ten seconds before Tim Rhodes said “GO!” Meagan decided to slap my face to provide the same effect. It was startling and completely hilarious, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on Meagan’s friendly slap because the race was off five seconds later.

In the first mile, I went out relaxed with Chad Crockford in my sight and Meagan at my side. I felt like charging up the hills and then slowing down on the downhill for the first mile, which extinguished any leftover energy I might have wanted to use on the third mile. We came through in 5:40. In the second mile (5:38), Chad surged up one of the hills and pulled away, but then I gained on him again around 1.5. Stephen Spada passed me and gave an encouraging “Good Job” as he continued to negative split his race. Eventually, I really started to hurt and slowed up. I could see Billy coming back to me and really wanted to pass him, but my legs just would not go. Meagan pulled up alongside me at 2.25 and we exchanged some words. The conversation went like this:

Meagan: Are you okay?
Caitlin: I’m just hurting.
Meagan: Alright, you can do this.
Caitlin (huffing and puffing)

Meagan gained about 10 seconds on me in that last mile, which makes sense because I ran a 5:50. I appreciate having Meagan as someone to compete against and can’t wait for her to finish up her NCAA DII campaign this weekend so that we can work out together more often.

While I was not nearly as strong as I would have liked, I’m confident that once I get my mileage ramped back up and my three weeks of downtime get pushed further into the past that my body will feel stronger in that final mile. It would be kind of cool to race Meagan neck and neck and to bring the race down to the final wire, holding hands through the finishing ribbon. Ha!

Best of all, the top five finishers won bread, cookies, an apron, and a chef’s hat. I give Great Harvest an A+ for creativity in their awards. Definitely beats out a trophy.

After the race, I lifted for the first time in two months at my new gym Pura Vida Fitness. We'll see how sore I am in the days to come.