Frosty Footrace 5K Race Report

I didn't really mention it in here in the blog except for a few passing references, but this morning Kim and I ran the Frosty Footrace 5K up in her neck of the woods.

I also didn't mention that I looked up last year's race times and figured out if I ran a PR I could possibly place in my age group. Didn't want to jink it you know :-)

So, because what you really care about is my time and whether or not I managed to place, take a look at this:



That, my friends, is a silver medal for coming in second in my age group with an official time of 25.58.9.

My very first top three age group finish. And a PR of almost a minute. And Kim medaled, too!



She also got second in her age group. Good thing we're in different age groups!!

Anyway, the race itself was nicely done. Before the race, Kim and I did a little warm up jog and I could feel all the water I'd drunk this morning sloshing around in my stomach. Knowing from experience that I wouldn't be happy running that way, we circled back to the car where I scarfed half of a homemade granola bar to help soak up the water. The bagel with peanut butter I'd eaten for breakfast almost three and a half hours ago was no longer cutting it.

There was some chaos at the start because apparently they were training people on how to use the chip timing system but not actually timing everyone with them. Good thing we squeezed ourselves in near the front!

After about a quarter mile (and at the top of a hill) the course cleared out. I breezed by the first mile sign in just over 8 minutes! Amazingly, it felt pretty good.

Mile two went by in a blur. Kim was right on my heels which was helping to keep me motivated.

At about the 2.25 mile mark we passed Kim's husband who was our official race photographer. I did my signature arm pump because I was feeling fabulous!



However, immediately after that we hit a pretty major hill and I felt a little sick to my stomach. I powered up the hill as best I could and just reminded myself that I had less than a mile left to go.

I was starting to falter and Kim (who originally didn't know if she'd be able to keep up with my ambitious pace) passed me just before mile 3. At one point she looked back and motioned for me to come join her. I gave it all I had but knew that we still had at least a tenth of a mile left to go. Kim pulled away and I did my best to keep up.

Finally, the finish line clock was in view showing a time of 25 minutes and some seconds. That's when I dug as deep as I could and sped towards the finish line.



A volunteer steered me to the kid removing the (apparently useless) chips and Kim handed me a bottle of water. It was at that point that I remembered to hit the "Stop" button on my Garmin. So, my time and distance are both a little long in the Garmin stats. Obviously, we both pushed it hard and we felt pretty wiped out.



After a few moments of debate, we decided to hang around for the awards ceremony. Thank goodness we did! I'll be honest, I almost cried when they called my name for my medal.



This was such a fun race with such wonderful, wonderful friends. I love that the race scene is so varied here what with huge 40,000+ races and smaller, local, 300 person races. I may not have gotten a t-shirt at this smaller race, but I've got a medal. And that means way more to me :-)

I will say, though, that the woman who came in first in my age group was literally in my sights the entire race and only beat me by 13 seconds. If I had realized she was in my age group I would have tried to beat her. I kind of think I could have, too. Next year I will have my revenge!!

Official Race Stats

Time: 25:58.9
Average Pace: 8:23/mile
Overall Place: 51/249
Female Age Group Place: 2/25

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 819 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 02/28/10 Up/Downhill: [+170/-170] Time: 11:00 AM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 3.15 miles Time: 0:26:01 Speed: 7.3 mph Pace: 8' 16 /mi Calories: 371 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 06 -0' 10 7.4 +0.1 +16 ft 2 8' 16 +0' 00 7.2 -0.0 -40 ft 3 8' 29 +0' 13 7.1 -0.2 +30 ft end 8' 05 -0' 11 7.4 +0.2 -6 ft Versus average of 8' 16 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com