Heart & Sole Five Miler Race Recap

For this race, I was not looking forward to the drive down to Columbia early in the morning. However, I found out that Elyse was going to be moving out of her dorm at U of South Carolina that same day and that her parents were coming down to help out. They booked a hotel room and were kind enough to let me share a bed in the room, even though they were going to be gone enjoying a Taylor Swift concert when I arrived at the room. Suffice to say, I enjoyed a great night's rest at the Inn at USC.

The next morning, when my alarm went off, I got all my race gear together and meandered down to the made-to-order breakfast room, where my mouth began to water at the sight of all the fresh fruit and omelets. Of course, since I was racing, I could not eat, so I chatted with Ann, Scott, and Elyse before I made my way to my car to drive to the race.

At the race, I got a great parking spot, picked up my bib, and began my warmup on my own. I saw two Kenyan women and figured they would be out of my reach. I also saw Amber Moran and knew she was in good shape. Other than that, I was still hoping to win some sort of money for a top five finish. I got to the start line, saw my fan club comprised of the Bullocks, and Ann gave me a quick hug. When the gun went off, I strategically placed myself in about 7th place. I knew that lots of women would come back to me and I also knew the third mile was entirely uphill, so I was preparing for that. I had just come off of two weeks of downtime, with no workouts and was not in the right mindset to race super hard. Admittedly, I was quite pleased with my ability to pass four girls over the course of the race, including one in the final 800m.

With that being said, I came through the first mile in 541. I felt controlled at least.

In the second mile, I passed two girls so I was now in fifth, contending for prize money again. For this mile, there were two smalls hills and I came through in 551.

The third mile boasted a huge hill in which I ran from Finlay Park all the way to capitol building. It was brutal and I did not fee like trying. Somehow, I managed to maintain my fifth place despite running a 626.

The fourth mile we circled around USC's campus and ran right by the Inn at USC. It was fairly flat, and here I passed another girl as I cruised in a 614.

The fifth mile was flat, with a steep 300m hill as the finish. For this one, I was closing in on the third place girl and eventually overtook her with 800m to go. She cried out "Oh no" and I continued to press. With the motivation of earning 100 more dollars and with the help of the downhill, I threw down a 535 for the last mile to finish third (29:52) behind Amber Moran and Janet Cherobon.

Obviously, my splits were all over the place, which is as a result of the terrain as well as my lack of desire to make myself hurt too much. Overall, I was satisfied because I won some money and I also came away with a big beach towel. I was also very impressed with the post race party which featured chocolate covered strawberries, free samples from Earth Fare, and lots of other yummy goodies. They also started the awards pretty quickly after the race, which bode well for our move out schedule.

Afterwards, Scott, Ann, and I all helped Elyse move out and managed to fit her entire dorm room into the Sequoia. We also ate a delicious lunch together at a local restaurant. Overall, great trip with some of my favorite people!