Well I am new to this, so here we go...
My first race of the year went good for me. I'm looking forward to improving, but am happy with my performance.
I'm glad that my day did not follow the start of it - i realized that i had forgotten my chip and number as i pulled up to the race. Thankfully race timers plan for people like me and had extra. It was pretty chilly at the start, so i kept some layers on to start with - i'm kind of a pansy in this area - I grew up in star valley wyoming and think i was traumatized by the cold weather. Or it could be that i sweat a lot and it FREEZES me in cold weather. Anyhow, i was wearing a snow hat, gloves, long sleeved dry fit shirt (which i planned to shed) and then race singlet underneath. I wore compression pants (which i am sold on), and then long socks and capris on top of that. I was surrounded by people wearing shorts and tanks lol.
So after the gun went off, i found myself amongs the top 5 women (1 and 2 had taken off), running with amber green and another girl for the first few miles. i was trying out my saucony kinoveras that day and i was feeling pretty good. miles 1 and 2 were right where i wanted them - 6:33 & 6:34. I sped up trying to maintain my place for the next few miles to 6:26, 6:30, 6:31. i was maintaining my place, and even moving up on people til mile 6. a group of 3 women passed me (ugh), including one nice lady who continued to move in front of me and cut me off everytime she did so. i was just trying to maintain, but slowed a little to 6:36 and 6:37 for the next couple miles. miles 8-10 had the rolling hills, my times were 6:41, 6:45, 6:45, . I planned on ditching clothes but still only ditched my hat as i passed the dixie center for the first time.
at this point in the race (heading onto the trail off of river rd) i had 3 ladies within catching distance (amber and erica were a good minute ahead at this point), and no one behind me for a long time. mile 10 was a 6:39 - i was trying to dig in here and pass some. mile 11 was 6:44, mile 12 - 6:39 mile 13 - 6:32. I did pass one lady (the one who was cutting me off:)) and trailed another all the way in. i had sped up but it wasn't enough. Out of nowhere a girl sprinted past both of us to the finish line (where did she come from - she wouldn't have been the only one who cut 5 miles off their run that day jk). Thus pushing me back to 7th place. final time was 1:26:20. all but the last minute sprinter were in my age group, but after taking the overall out i placed 3rd in my age group. I felt good about my time, but need to work on my final push to catch those last ladies:)
I need to remember to run some slow miles after the finish to recover!! I'm always so glad to be done. I still had stomach probs afterwards and had to go home early...i need to figure this out! | 