A week ago I thought I could run sub 8s for this one. Then I got hit with the plague (the worst chest-cold of my entire life). 2 days beforehand I didn't know if I'd be able to run sub 12s. By Friday, I thought I could maybe hold sub 9s. Hooray!

My chest was rattling pretty good, but I didn't do a ton of coughing on the course, which was VERY nice.

It was just a hair too cool at the start of the race, so I kept my jacket on. The gun went off and I zipped in and out of traffic pretty well to find the right paced hole, which eventually came after running about 1/2 a mile or so. My breathing wasn't too bad, which was nice, but my legs felt heavy. Drat!
Anyways, hit mile one without really knowing it. Before the race, I was hoping to run sub 9s. My plan was to try to run the first one in about 8:45 to give myself some time for water/walk breaks and assess my chest from there. I saw I came thru a little quicker than that, and my chest felt relatively allright.
Ok, let's pick it up a hair.
A hair is all I had, really. My chest heated up pretty good when I turned up the speed, so I'd throttle back a bit. Ran mile 2 and 3 fairly consistently.

Went thru the first 5k look in about 26 and change, but now I was HOT... when I got past the crowds from the finish chute, I slowed down to take some water and rip off my jacket. Ok... jacket's not coming off! Hooked on the garmin, Rats... fiddled with it for a bit, then finally got it to yank off... with my iPod. Nice! Reeled in the tunes, restrapped it to my arm, tied the jacket around my waist, and we're off again... about 80 seconds blown. Shoot!

No big deal, I'd planned to take one or maybe 2 water breaks anyways. I pushed a little bit on this mile to see if I could keep it sub 9, but 9:10 was as good as I could get without coughing my guts out.

The next mile I was just getting tired. Pushed as hard as my lungs would let me, but still lost some time. Too much time spent in bed last week, I guess, but my legs were out of rubber.

At the beginning of mile 6, I was hot and tired, and decided to take another 60s walk break to get some h20 down, and hopefully find some legs for the last push. It was hard to watch all the people I'd worked so hard to reel in run past me as I sucked back water, but I just hoped I'd be able to do it again in the last little 'sprint' I was hoping to mount.

60s down, and we're off again... this mile was done in 8:47, but it was actually my fastest lap, since there was a walk break in there as well. I was tired though... I saw a couple of people just ahead of me that I'd passed earlier and thought, well that's it. Can't get them again. Actually slowed down my pace for a bit since my brain had already beated me. The problem was, I guess their brains beat them too, since I saw I was even still re-gaining on them. Ok, legs, let's see what you've got.

Last stretch... there goes one. Yay! I'm playing that stupid invisible fishing line thing that Galloway or someone I read told me about. Loop a line around the runner ahead of you, then pull yourself in. Look, I caught another one. And another. Can I get one more? Can you say "Halleluia?" Made it! The one gal I'd been chasing for the majority of the race... I got up beside her and I could almost hear her seething in my head. Actually, she probably couldn't have cared less, but in my mind I figured I had to just pin it, or she was going to run me down. So pin it I did, or as pinning as my spent legs and lungs could handle, which was actually fairly pathetic, but good enough to me.

Near the finish line there was a Daiko drum troupe banging away, and all the 5k runners and fans were there a screaming, which gave my legs a last jolt to bolt down the chute. Finished with my last fish actually quite a ways behind me. Hooray for my illustrious finishing sprint.

54:27 is my unofficial time, or my watch time. They haven't posted the results yet, but it's probably pretty close.

I got down the chute, rounded the corner, put my hand on my knees and coughed my guts out. At least it waited until the race was over, but my throat was pretty raw by the time I was finally able to breathe again.

Went and got some water, ate about 2000 orange slices, and waited to see if I was going to win any of the (fantastic) door prizes. No such luck. Packed up my lovely cotton race shirt and headed to the lake.

Not get sick beforehand. Other than that, I thought my pacing was actually pretty good for the condition I was in. Maybe not get mentally beat 5.5 miles in. Maybe leave my cursed jacket OFF even if I get a little but chilly before the race.

Eating oranges, drinking water, chatting up the ladies I knew there. Good times.


Lungs and legs.


The organization of this race is really awesome. Lots of volunteers, and really, probably the best door prizes of ANY race I've been to. About 1000 runners, and I swear they gave away over 100 things. And not little pissy things. There were 2 mountain bikes from Olympia. There was a Wii. There was a week hot-tub rental... there were dozens of 1 hour massage and 3 month memberships to elite gyms... there were dozens of $50 to $100 GCs given out... I can't remember how many times they said the package retailed for over $300 bucks. Just really amazing.
And of course I won nothing.
Drat!
Maybe if I wait til I reach 90 I'll be able to AG some shwag!