Jenny and I headed to the race early morning, both of us not excited about racing and really wanting to not show up. But we did, and I am so glad...isn't that how it goes?
We warmed up over the bridge with great views of downtown Fort worth for about .6 of a mile.
The race is an out and back on the trail system and a few sharp turns in the first .25 of a mile. I lined up too far back and lost probably 10-15 seconds in the beginning trying to weave my way through the people and not fall. Once we crossed the bridge and headed up the ramp, the people spaced out. At this point there was a guy trying to keep pace with me and I am happy to say, he never passed and finished 20-30 seconds behind me. I picked people off the rest of the way out and just tried to keep my pace sub 8... this is about what I expected fitness wise but was hoping for more. My legs were still very tired from Thursday and it took the warm up and first two miles of the race for them to start to feel normal. Hit the turn around and acutally drank from the cup while running - that is a first! Headead back and picked of a girl on the short up hill, but she passed me shortly after that and I was hanging on and ended up finishing about 5-10 seconds behind her. The rest of the race was hot, humid, hot and humid and the last .2 is up hill and I just pushed as hard as I could to finish strong.
Not a bad start to the training cycle and I now know I am right on target with what I had been thinking. I do need to race more and work on bringing my times back down. It will come with consisten training and more racing.... and cooler temps.
Overall, I am pleased with how it went and I got out of it what I needed.
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