NC One Mile Championships

Goal #1: Top 3
Goal #2: sub 5:05

Actual:
3+ mile warmup
1 mile race in 4:53, 1st place, $350
~6 mile cool down for 10.5 miles total

As you can see from my goals above, I had no idea what kind of mile shape I was in. I have not been doing any workouts remotely close to mile speed, let along 5k speed.  I knew that I had run a 5:09 opening mile at the Hot Summer Night's 5k back in August, so I figured low 5:00 would be within a reasonable window.  After a nice afternoon hanging out with Garrett, Michelle and Thomas at their house, we drove to the race together and warmed up.  I scoped out my competition comprised mainly of former NC State runners Kris Vegh and Andi Cozzarelli.  Of course, a mile race is a total gamble because someone that isn't typically a factor in a longer race could totally blow my wheels off in this short of a race.  I dediced the best bet was to just run as hard as I could since it was only going to be five minutes of pain.

The gun went off and I took off to tuck in behind the leaders.  We formed somewhat of a goose V formation, and I was off the right shoulder of the leader.  After 500m in, we rounded the first of six turns, and without any extra effort from me, I was suddenly ahead of the pack.  I guess that practice of taking turns hard for the Olympic Trials Marathon really helped me out in this race.  I was stunned actually that it was that easy to take the lead. I  eased up even a little bit after the second turn to see if anyone would try to pull up alongside me.  No one did, so I just kept accelerating as much as possible through the turns, and taking them kind of wide to allow for that.  With my in-laws, Garrett, Thomas and Michelle cheering, I had a lot of motivation to finish hard.  With 500m to go, I secretly thought that someone had to be unleashing a killer kick that would knock me of the pedestal.  As if Thomas was reading my mind, he told me that I had at least 15 meters on the next girl.  My finish definitely wasn't pretty, but I finished in a solid time, a PR of 4:53.

After getting interviewed by the news, I gathered some of the other girls and we all cooled down together with Michelle and Thomas.  The awards took forever but afterwards I enjoyed a nice dinner at Whole Foods with G and his parents.  I was one happy lady.

NC 10k Championships Fail

Goal #1:  Win
Goal #2:  Win $500
Goal #3:  10k Race in Low 35

Actual:
3 mile warmup
10k race in 36:49 (552, 543, 559, 538, 621, 713), 3rd place, $150
2.5 mile cool down for 11+ miles total

I hadn't run a bad race in 2013 up until today.  I made up for that euphoric high I'd been on with a slew of positive race experiences over the past couple of months.  I think that the heavy racing schedule from April finally caught up with me and affected my performance today.  On the warmup I knew that today was going to be rough based on how my legs felt.  Unfortunately, my legs didn't lie and I struggled to maintain my goal Half Marathon pace in half the distance.

I even positioned myself perfectly by tucking in on the first mile and staying relaxed.  I stuck with the second place girl through mile 2, where we struggled with directions on the course as volunteers were lacking at the turns.  After the 2nd mile, the eventual winner pulled away from me (ironically in the very same spot that last year's winner ALSO pulled away from me at).  At that very point, I questioned why I even do this race because it seems that every year I always feel absolutely terrible and that the heat and the hills just rip me apart.

All you need to know is my legs felt heavy and tired, I got beat by the same girl that I beat just one month ago at the USATF 8k Champs (a very tough competitor) and I fell out of contention for the win after the second mile.  It wasn't my day, so I'm moving on as I know it's not a true indicator of where my fitness lies and is merely a small bump in the road on the way.  And, hey, at least I got to meet an awesome new runner on the scene (Stevie) and was able to spend some quality time with Thomas and Michelle!  On that note, I need to go celebrate the birth of Thomas at the pool, and I know such celebrations will not disappoint!