Had my firecracker 4 miles race in Saratoga this
morning. Over the weekend I ran 6 miles on Friday, a very hilly 14m on
Saturday and 3 easy on Sunday. My quads were a little sore and my
stomach is very sour from all the different foods this weekend. My
sister is running the race with me. We get there and get our numbers
and it's about 80-85 degree with full sun. Not my ideal weather by a
long shot. We do a 2 mile warm up and get to the start. Based on my
recent races I felt that 25 was doable goal (ran a 22min 3.5m race on
the 9th of June). We take off and I just about trip over people lined
up at the start in front of me and way out of place. My first mile felt
a little labored but not bad and the second I was hurting. I blow up
at about 2.5, my sister paces me and the last 1.5 were brutally painful
becasue there are a couple steep hills. I come in at 26:40 (pace
6:40min/miles), way off my time adn ready to puke. I was 141 overall
and 17/92 in my age group. Mile splits were 6:11, 6:29, 6:57, 7:02.
Blech. Very disappointing, I think it was a combination of the long run
on Saturday, the giving blood a week ago, very hot weather, and the
steep hills were just too much. My sister beat me by 35sec and got 3rd
in her age. I haven't had a bad race in a while, makes me grumpy
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