Was at the race at 5pm for a 7pm start, anticipation had to have hurt me a bit. I had to set up our running group to promote our charity race so I was pretty busy right up until the race time.
So hot outside and muggy, sun was beating down and to boot is really windy especially seeing I ran the entire race by myself, 9th place was 35 seconds ahead and 11th place was 45 seconds behind me so it was tough not being near anyone. My shoes were soaked because of the water around the start and there was some trail running involved, grassy and a bit of mud as well.
First mile was 5:54 and it was right into the wind for most of it, I could hardly open my mouth I was so dry and I was breathing like a monster, sucked. I tried to settle in but the trail for the next mile had some mud with bike tracks and a lot of turns so I was pretty much ready to give up when I saw my second split was 6:06 because my goal was to keep everything under 6 min mile. When I came out of the trail I came head to head with a kid on a bike and lost my footing but did not fall, I think the kid fell off the bike though, now I really wanted to quit. The race then had you go around a pond a couple times which was intense heat. I kept saying don't do this just walk and say it was not your night but there is something deep down that lets us battle through and I knew that this is what I needed for future marathon's like Boston. I kept telling myself get to 4 miles and its going to be easier and it was but the leg turnover was not there so I think my last 2 miles where 6:30 and 6:22. Had a little sprint in the grass and mud around the final corner but still could not beat 39 mins.
I won my age group and cracked the top 10 which was not bad because there was 950 race participants. Our charity handed out flyers for our event in September and we had about 10 people sign up for our Running Miles group.
The best part was not quiting and being positive despite wanting a better time, proud of myself. We stood and watched all of the group from our running factory finish giving everyone high fives it was fantastic because a lot of these people were running/walking there first race. We all had our new shirts on and it really was a team event which made it very special.
Going to run on the TM today for 10k instead of 14 outside in this muggy weather.
overall a good couple races in the last week and also I don't think I fully recovered from the 21 miles on Wed.
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