Over 9000 people lined up to do 2 races, a 5k and a 5 miler on a mostly shared course. And while you'd think jumping from a thanksgiving race of a few hundred to one of several thousand would be the biggest change.
You'd be wrong.
The biggest change was the course. The Smoke the Turkey race is pancake flat. Feaster Five could literally be the exact opposite. Hills from the very beginning, including a massive hill in the second mile that seemingly never ends. When we walked to shirt pick-up we saw the hill at the end of the course and I thought that hill was long. It was nothing compared to the big one on the course. There were several others as well. This is one of those things it's hard to prepare for with an out of town race, the unfamiliar course.
Oh, and because Rach was leaving for the weekend as soon as the race ended, we did thanksgiving yesterday. So a nice big dinner of turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, champagne, the works.
So, now that I've given you all reasons (read: excuses) I had to have a poor outing, let me end the suspense. My time was 42:24. While this is 3 1/2 minutes slower than my run this past Sunday, the course was so much harder I feel like this was a terrific time based on where I am in my training. We get almost no hill training running in the city. It's very flat. When I passed the 2 mile marker I was much closer to a 15 minute mile because of that damn never-ending hill. The fact that I turned in a 12:24 time for the last 1.1 miles was a terrific effort, especially with the long hill at the end. I simply decided that I wasn't going to let this course get the best of me. I ignored the hills, my burning tired lungs, the throbbing in my right ankle (ok, I didn't really ignore it as much as adjusted my gait until it stopped) and pushed myself through that last mile and up the hill as hard as I could.
Oh, and because Rach was leaving for the weekend as soon as the race ended, we did thanksgiving yesterday. So a nice big dinner of turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, champagne, the works.
So, now that I've given you all reasons (read: excuses) I had to have a poor outing, let me end the suspense. My time was 42:24. While this is 3 1/2 minutes slower than my run this past Sunday, the course was so much harder I feel like this was a terrific time based on where I am in my training. We get almost no hill training running in the city. It's very flat. When I passed the 2 mile marker I was much closer to a 15 minute mile because of that damn never-ending hill. The fact that I turned in a 12:24 time for the last 1.1 miles was a terrific effort, especially with the long hill at the end. I simply decided that I wasn't going to let this course get the best of me. I ignored the hills, my burning tired lungs, the throbbing in my right ankle (ok, I didn't really ignore it as much as adjusted my gait until it stopped) and pushed myself through that last mile and up the hill as hard as I could.
Running 5k regularly is clearly helping me get stronger at this distance. We've got one more 5k next weekend, so hopefully I can put one more really strong time up on the boards for the year.
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