Aflac Iron Girl - Run5k

This was supposed to just be a 30 to 40 minute run to start getting my legs back under me after last week's marathon. Yea, right. After the start it took a while to wind my way around the walkers and slower runners. I guess I'm not one of them in this race. It was a bit frustrating trying to weave in and out to find some clean pavement, but I found another girl doing the same thing, so I just followed her trail. It took about 1/2 mile to get in a space where I was just open and running without having to look out for slower runners. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just reporting.

I didn't have music because they said not to although others did. Anyway, came out fairly fast, in the low 8's because I didn't care if I got tired later, it didn't matter. Knees and legs felt fine, just kept running and focused on my arms to make the full pendulum motion. Just wanted to have a nice run. I do love to run! A girl with headphones passed me so I decided to pace with her for a while and I kept with her then realized I didn't need to go with her, so I just kept a nice pace, in the 8's most all the time. I actually got at 6:06 running down the hill though. Up the incline at around 2 1/2 was good, just kept it easy, right around 9 I think. So that accounts for my overall pace. I was going to skip the Garmin, but I'm addicted. It's official. :) I realized I only had less than 1/2 a mile to go when we turned back into the fairgrounds so I started a little kick. Then looked and saw only .20 to get to 3 miles, so I found another gear. I was actually breathing heavier and feeling really pretty good. As we were coming down the finish, again on the track, but with the covering over the dirt, a woman sped by me on my left. At first, I just let her go and thought, good for her. Then..I thought, oh, what the hell, let's see if I can catch and/or pass her. Found another gear and beat her over the mats. Thank you, woman. You made me find another gear. I'm really surprised I had that much left in me after last week's 26.2 and the really hard 2 mile run I did on Thursday. I'm so honored to be among runners and thrilled to be in the top 10 -- 6th in my AG. I've really come a long way and I think I've not reached the top of the mountain yet. I think I need to get more speed work in and get that turnover moving even quicker. Exciting to know that's ahead of me.

Nothing

Walked back down to the expo area and just walked and bought a couple of cute shirts, one for a friend and one for me.


Running a 26.2 last Sunday.


IronGirl does a really nice job of treating women to a 5K/10K race experience. Love the Aflac duck, the tech tees, all the schwag and the great bags and breakfast treats they provide after the race. I didn't need to stop at the water stations, but they seemed stocked and available. The course was way better for the 10Kers this year I'm sure. In years past the 10Kers, usually me, would have to weave in and out of the 5K walkers. This year they had the 10K take a different route for much of the race. It was much better. Also, they took us off the dirt race track which was a sprained ankle waiting to happen. Thank you, IronGirl for listening to the feedback from previous years.