Went to Fort Collins to race in a fast 4 miler. Warmed up 3 miles; stretching, strides.
Looking around me I knew there were some very elite racers on the starting line. Sara Slattery was at the front as the race went out. It made my body feel a little sick and shocked my nervous system a little to go out at the pace the lead ladies were blazing at but I just held on for dear life. I was sticking to the front group of 5 other women who came through the first mile in 5:24. After that the pace let up a bit thank goodness!! 2nd mile was 5:40; felt a lot more comfortable. 3rd mile picked up again to 5:30 and Sara slipped back a bit. I was still trying as hard as I could to hang on to the other 4 women and I stuck in 5th place (the final spot to get prize money). 4th mile the front group got a little gap on me but I just kept at it as best I could and sprinted to the finish in 22:11 with a 5:28 final split.
I was 13 seconds behind the leader and the top four were only 2 seconds apart. Here is the breakdown:
| ADRIANA NELSON |
00:21:58 ($800) |
| NUTA OLARU |
00:21:59 ($500) |
| ALISHA WILLIAMS |
00:21:59 ($300) |
| NICLOLE FEEST |
00:22:00 ($150) |
| NAN KENNARD |
00:22:11 ($50)
|
Sara Slattery came in 6th at 22:30
Aaron and I chatted with Adriana Nelson and her husband while waiting for the awards. She mentioned that she just ran 2:35 in the Chicago Marathon 6 weeks ago and she's not in her best form for a fast 4 miler (yet she won anyway). She was shooting for 2:25 in Chicago and was dissapointed in her 2:35. Haha. I would be STOKED to run 2:35. She was really friendly and kind and welcomed me to come run with her in Fort Collins sometime and also to befriend her on Facebook; super nice person. I got $50 and a yummy pumpkin pie for my award. I was really happy with my result and just super excited to race such fast women and be pulled to such a fast time. My 5k split was 17:11, which is the fastest I have run since college.
We almost got in a car accident on the drive home. There were 4 separate fender bender accidents on I-25 coming towards Denver so the traffic kept randomly stopping quickly. I was chatting with Aaron and didn't notice in time that the cars in my lane were slowing fast and I was still cruisin' along at 70mph. Aaron said "watch out!" and I slammed on my breaks but it was not going to stop me in time so I veered off into the median and bounced to a stop in the weeds. I actually didn't fully stop, just crawled right back up onto the highway. Got a good amount of mud in my under carriage and some stinky breaks. My heart was racing and the kids were startled. Not Ali though, she slept through it. As I pulled back up onto the freeway the guy who was behind me when I veered off the highway gave me a big thumb up and mouthed "NICE MOVE!" I'm thankful we didn't collide into the car in front of us at 60 mph and that we didn't roll down the slanted median into oncoming traffic. We defintely had guardian angels watching over us. | 