I’ve been feeling the itch…
The itch to run a race…The last one I participated in was waaaaaay back in January, which was the Hill & Dale 8 Miler (winning is awesome!) But seriously, nine plus months is too long to go without a race. So when Amy told me that she was doing the Oktoberfest Bier Run 5k in Nashville, I got a little jealous. I went to the Memphis Runner’s website to scope out the weekend events and saw that we had an Oktoberfest 5k too! Then I saw that the race was at 3:30PM, which meant I could sleep in. My mind was made up on the spot. However, a 3:30PM start time has its disadvantages as well. Last Saturday at 3:30PM in Memphis, it was about 86 degrees and muggy as all get out. Um…I thought this was the fall? It’s Mid-October! Apparently Memphis didn’t get that memo.
Another encouraging boost to enter the race occurred when I took a look at the registered participant list and saw only seven girls in my age category. Maybe I could place!! I was pumped! I could school 5 girls easily, couldn’t I? Well my friends, the answer to that question is NO. No, I cannot school 5 other girls in my age category…at least not right now. The hard cold truth is that I am out of shape. Truthfully, I didn’t give it all I had, but there was no way that I was going to blow out my knee and return to the sideline for any longer. I’m off the bench now, folks, and I’m here to stay.
So back to me being out of shape…In addition to the heat, I learned that the city of Bartlett is one big mountain. The course, which took us through the neighborhoods of Bartlett, was super hilly. I swear I was running uphill the entire 3.1 miles. I figured that we’d eventually have to come back down the ginormous mountain that we were climbing, but no….uphill all the way.
Ok so maybe I’m exaggerating a teensy bit.
I’m really not lying when I say that there were quite a few hills, but the truth is that there were some down hills to coast down also. Let’s just say that I really felt the lack hill training over the past few months (note to self: do more hills).
Anyway, long story short: Hot + Hilly = Slow April = No Medal
My time was 30:58 and I came in 5th out of those 7 girls. And actually, I think my time of 30:58 might just be a new low PR!
That’s gotta count for something, right?
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3 comments:
first race, don't beat yourself up too much. as long as you're feeling healthy and you start rebuilding your confidence with lack of injuries while running, you're on your way.
Dude, it was totally the heat... I mean.. who can PR or school bitches in 86 degrees??? Nobody.
Also... I have a correction for your post... you ran a race in March with me... how quickly you forget the Running to beat the Blues 5k. And after you got all the good swag, too. Hmph.
I've had two races like that and about a million training runs.
Hot and hilly do not equal good race conditions! You'll get a medal in the next one!
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