A new post high school PR! I'm pretty excited even though I feel like I've been put on one of those conveyor belts in the cartoons where the giant glove punches you, then you get chopped up into a dozen pieces, then the iron roller with the spikes flattens out and pulverizes what's left of you.
All day I've been thinking about how I opened my big mouth and told everyone I was shooting for a sub 6. I've been thinking about what excuses I could give for not making it; too hot, too windy, not enough mileage lately, not enough speed work, Garmin's not calibrated correctly. But on the other hand I really felt like it was in me. So I decided to go with MichelleL's advice and just take off like a rabbit.
The way this race works is they line everybody up on the Scottsdale Community College track. You run a little over four times around to get your mile in. Ten minutes after the last person comes in, you run another one. I brought my son with me. He's in cross country but due to reasons we don't quite understand, he's not eligible to run. Anyway, he wanted to do it, and I wanted to see what he could do.
I saw some familiar faces and knew there were some fast people there. Perfect. That's why I come to these, to race against good competition. I lined up a row back in lane 3. That made me have to run in the second lane up until right before the second curve where I saw an opening and took it. From there on I don't remember passing anyone or being passed. They called out the first lap as 1:25. Nice. I started out hard and then slowed up a hair. I felt like I could maintain this pace for another 3 laps. The next lap was 2:55. Okay. I'm still under my goal pace. I'm running strong, but I'm starting to feel it. The next lap was 4:30. All I need is another 1:30, and I've already done that twice. I consciously picked it up. At this point a guy started coming up on my shoulder. I thought he would pass me but as we hit the straight away with the wind at our backs I just opened up my stride. With 200 meters to go I began my kick. Coming out of the curve I could see the clock and saw that I had about 20 seconds to go. Maybe allie was right with her 5:55 prediction. I kept running hard, and I kept seeing seconds tick off it. Slow down clock! I might not make it. I have to not only cross the starting line, but run the little extra because the track is short. Well, I made it! 5:57! (Actually Garmin has me at 5:47 because it measured the distance as 1.03 miles.) However, I'll go with 5:57 (official results) because it's my fault for running in the 2nd lane.
I was pretty excited, but I had to see where AJ was at. I was surprised that he was kind of far back. He came in at 7:16. I know he can run faster than that. I think his knee was bothering him. Oh well. I told him since I made my goal of a sub 6, that I would take the next mile easy. When we lined up I stood one row back in the first lane. Nobody came to step in front of me. This is dumb, I thought. The guy that started us told us that if we didn't beat our first mile time he would stand us at the 40-yard line and throw javelins at us. Then he put us to our mark. All righty then. I moved up to the front (so unworthy of me.) Set. Go. I took off way slower than the first one. I made the comment, "Looks like I'll be dodging javelins on the 40." My second mile was a lazy 6:54. This time Garmin measured it 1.00 even. Must be because I had the pole position. I did lap my son, too. The funny thing was when he crossed the finish line on his third lap they handed him his popsicle stick with his finish place number on it, so he stopped.
I know this is the longest entry/mile race report ever, but this is a historic, monumental, breakthrough moment for me. I would never have thought I would see another mile within the 5's from me. Especially when I weighed over 250 lbs. three and a half years ago. Just goes to show what hard work can do for you. I feel blessed that I am healthy enough to run and that my family supports me. Sub 5 now? Well, let's not get too overzealous.
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Day 79 P90X - Plyometrics X - The race was at 6:30pm. I got home and ate dinner. Then I did a little blogging, a little facebooking, and generally just procrastinated doing my P90X workout. I finally started it a little after 11pm. There's a lot of jumping in Plyometrics X. Because I was feeling sore from the race, I didn't BRING IT like I usually do. But I imagine I worked as hard as I did when I first started. | 