I was so excited to get to Oregon last night and see my brand-new Garmin. I hugged it! Then this morning, I woke up, and although it had said it was charging last night, it was so longer saying that. It also wouldn't turn on. WHAT?! AMAZON! What kind of crap are you sending me? So that was a HUGE dissapointment that's importance will be revisited later. Did the Tigard Earth Day 10K this morning, just signed up this week in my effort to punish myself some and get faster. It was certainly punishment - I suffered big time. Its funny that I enjoy doing this to myself, making myself want to die! Got there too early (it was only about 8 minutes from home), did a 30 minute warmup (about 3 miles), went to the porta-potties a few times, got a bunch of free bars, and finally we started. Mile 1 - 7:53 (I downloaded some stopwatch app to my phone, that's where these splits came from) Some uphill, lots of weaving at the beginning (should have started closer up) Mile 2 - 7:50 A little more uphill, little rolling hills, this is feeling hard, but I'm continuously passing people and I like that. Mile 3 - 7:17 Some downhill which I try to fly down, my legs will probably feel that tomorrow! Enter the pretty Cook Park trails (where I used to bike last summer when I lived here) Mile 4 & 5 - 15:25 (7:44 avg) Here's where I suffer big time. Mile 4 was a desolate time, I was feeling like keeping up this pace was impossible, and that I was going to totally bonk. Then we came upon a fork in the road, everyone in front of me went right (looking at the course map now we should have gone left to stay on the trail), we entered some neighborhood, I was pretty much alone with one other guy and then 6 people about 200 feet ahead of us. Then 3 of the people ahead of us turn left, the other 3 look confused and keep going straight. I didn't know what to do! I was already feeling so exhausted that running anything extra was going to kill me. We kept going straight, and about 200 feet later I was certain we were not in the right place. But we just kept going (luckily), and then we saw everyone else, relief. I was also feeling discouraged because the mile felt never-ending! Made sense, we missed the 4th mile marker (on the trail where we were supposed to be), and I felt SO happy when I saw the 5th mile marker. With 1 more mile to go I knew I could do it and felt better and picked the pace up again. Mile 6 - 7:01 (What What!!) At the beginning of this mile a lady came up behind me and was passing and I started hanging with her, we ran side-by-side pretty much the whole mile. I tried to pull away on this little downhill section, but after that I had nothing left, I was going as fast as I could at that point, there was no kick (if anything I went slower as we approached the finish). So she pulled ahead. I wanted to beat her so bad! When I saw the results I was even more bummed because a) I got 6th (could've been top 5!) and b) because of the chip she only beat me by ONE SECOND. So this is an official PR - the first one of 2011! By over a minute and a half! I also got 6th place and 3rd in age group! I had to leave right away to go golfing (we golfed 9 holes in this lovely 70 degree day, which I'm sure all the walking will help with any soreness), but supposedly age group awards are MEDALS?! I would be stoked, I've never gotten anything but a ribbon before. We'll see if they mail them. Overall, extremely pleased. This was very very punishing though, but that's what I set out to do - go as hard as I could for as long as I could and if I die, I die. The only thing that is bothering me still is if it is REALLY a PR. I think it is, no matter what, because of the 1.5 minute cushion, its a PR for me. But I may have shortcutted .1 or so, I'm not sure (so it may be hard for me to beat this PR in the future!). I tried to analyze the map but we're splitting hairs with the distance so without my beloved Garmin (key importance of earlier fail) I have no idea the true difference. After I recovered I tried to go find that girl I ran with or the guy who I was running with earlier to check their Garmin splits (if they had one) but I couldn't find them, and most of the other people milling around were 5K runners. Anyway, absolutely LOVELY Saturday, felt great about this, lovely 9 holes of golfing, sunny 70 degrees, and a great dinner with the family and adorable precious nephew.
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