I lined up near the front but a little back because A. The 5K started at the same time and I didn't want to get caught up in that and B. This was the regional championships and I knew even with the 10K there would be some competitive sub - 5 minute pace guys going out. I definitely didn't want to get caught up in that!

My goals for this race were pretty simple. 1. Improve upon my last race 2. Even splits 3. Stay relaxed when it gets hard.

I had another teammate who lined up with me and was looking for me to help hold her back in the beginning (she's one of THOSE) and then we were going to try and work together as long as it made sense. (She is towards the end of a marathon build so in really good shape but also with a lot of miles from the week)

The starter said, "On your mark, get set ..." Then a train horn sounded. This was part of the railroad days celebration but I don't think anyone was expecting the train horn to start the race. A couple people screamed and some people covered their ears and ducked. In the confusion I'm not exactly sure what happened but a few people went down. I managed to avoid the chaos and took off.

It felt really good to be racing on the road again. I knew today wouldn't be a PR day as I am not quite there fitness-wise but I felt stronger than I had in a long while. My teammate was running next to me, stride for stride and we came in the first mile at 6:36. Right where she wanted to be (thank you, thank you very much.) We turned out along the river for the second mile. The road weaved around a bit and my teammate shouldered me over saying, "tangents!" Duh. Sometimes I forget the most simple things. It was soooo nice to have her out there to remind me :) we were passing a lot of people at this point pretty much all the way to the cut off point for the 5K. We finished mile 2 at 6:36 again (woop!) and my teammate slowly started to pull away from me. I let her go. It was far too early to be pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

Although she was in front of me I was able to follow her beautiful tangent running through the curvy road. It also gave me a little motivation to not let her out of my sight. We approached the first 180-ish degree turn which I navigated as best as I could. It really is a skill to slowdown, turn, and start up again without screwing up your pacing. The third mile was 6:36 and I was suuuuuuuper happy with how I was pacing.

There was a loooooong straightaway out and back portion down past the mile 4 marker. This was a little tough mentally but I was able to cheer on my teammates on their return. It was nice to see that the really fast women weren't TOALLY killing me and that my fitness was slowly starting to come back since my surgery. I passed a guy who said, "Wow, you are so nice for cheering for all of those people." I told him I was probably paying for it with my pacing. Indeed I was, too. I ran that mile in 6:46! OOPS! I told him I needed to reign it in and I we could be our own cheering squad together if he ran with me. He accepted my invite.

We ran together for a bit and he said, "WOW, you are a very efficient runner! Are you even breathing?" I laughed and we chatted a bit more when I noticed my teammate I was pacing wasn't too far ahead. I decided reeling her in as much as possible would be my goal.

Sloooowly I got closer and closer. I dropped my cheering squad guy but I was really focused at this point. Just as we hit the 6 mile mark I passed her.

Just a quarter to go. I tried to stay as relaxed as possible even though it was starting to hurt. I accelerated as much as possible and ran through the finish.

I just need to keep building my volume and adding in some more speed and strength workouts and I am confident I will not only continue to improve but get into PR shape.

I feel very invigorated and ready to run competitively again!

I had to skip the cooldown and awards ceremony and go straight to my car, to a bridal shower then a bachelorette party. Apparently I won a trophy, too. Damn.


Still building volume and overall load. Getting there...