RACE: Run For Your Life 5K, Titusville, FL @20:00

This morning I was really considering skipping out on the race in order to get more sleep but I woke up anyway and very begrudgingly packed up and headed out.

I'm glad that I went.

I ran pretty even splits:
    1st mile 6:25
    2nd mile 6:32
    3rd mile 6:15
TOTAL 3.1 miles... 20:00

Yeah, I ran a 20:00 flat, which is kinda "dooh", but it's a season PR, so I'll take it.

This morning I got to the IRC United Methodist Church for the race 40 minutes before the 8:00am start time. The set-up at the church was so festive (it being St. Patrick's Day and all) plus the church races are quite well-staffed; there were green signs, green shirts, green balloons, green lights, and their own Christian rock band, which rocked because the music was good/danceable and it's not like I listen to lyrics anyway. I wished that I had my camera, but again, it was kind of nice not worrying about it all.

For the race, I wore the navy blue [women's] shorts (fb-ing) and my purple sleeveless compression shirt to keep warm. It was really chilly, so I figured that I'd actually do a warm-up, and I ran for 5 minutes and stretched. I think it helped.

I didn't jet out super quick like usual, I just took it at a manageable pace. I wanted to try out my kick-speed and feeling more fit from some nice hard practices (like Tuesday's 5-mile continuous intervals), I figured that I had enough fitness to try it out. And I did. I didn't worry so much about the people who slowly passed me during the first mile even though they looked twice my age.

My Cocoa Beach coach, Rebecca, and the usual top female runner, Kara, caught up to me and we ran the second mile together. Then Kara and I picked up the last mile, and with a quarter mile to go, I kicked it hard... but it was the last tenth-of-a-mile that kicked my ass. It was a run-past-the-finish-line, loop-around, and come-back sort of thing. By the time I rounded the last turn, I saw the clock at 19:52 (holy crap) and gave it a second kick. I had initially kicked too early, but without it, I know that I would've been over 20 minutes.

Anyways, I changed out of my compression shirt soon after the race, so I think that my internals will behave for the rest of the day. I had three of the wonderful power-rolls that I look forward to at each of these Titusville races. I would "eat one, put two in my bag" so by the end of the awards, I had nine rolls to snack on at home.

YUM!
OH, and I won 3rd place in my age group! WOO!

my award!
The drive home was kind of crazy... I was SC-driving (i.e. passing cars one-by-one on the right-hand lane). Boo, but I was listening to Car Talk, it was beautiful outside, and I was too tired to care all that much. Anyways, after I got home. I gave myself a quick haircut (just the sides):

before and after
And now I'm going to shower, eat, and take a nap.

Woo!