okay, this is gonna be a long report for a short race. Settle in!
I arrived at the site and found my Running Club peeps. One of the gals told me Robin wanted to run with me. I said "great!" Then I realized Robin is, like, a 7:00mm runner. uh oh. Turns out she ran 20 the day before and wanted to help me hit my goal of a sub 30 5K. So... we take off. Shortly after that, about half a mile, she appears freaking out over my breathing. Apparentely I"m not breathing properly. Sort and shallow. She keeps telling me to breathe deep and pick it up "snaps fingers". cmon, cmon, breathe, go faster. First mile was at just under 9 minutes, fast for me. Hit a few rollers. My legs start cramping. Walked the water stop for about 10s before she tells me to hit it again. I'm really hurting by now and I want to just slap her. Hit another little roller. Breathe, try to really draw it in. Cramps again in the legs. At mile 2 we hit it at about 18 minutes, (I remember the timer there), so I was going, maybe I'll do this after all. Then the third.2 mile was the worst. I was panting and trying to breathe. She keeps telling me to draw it in. She's wearing a Garmin so keeps me updated on the distance left, 400 yards, that's one lap around the track, that's 2 minutes... and I"m basically hurting here and don't have a sprint left in me. I see the running club guys on the side of the road waving their hands for me instead of clapping (gotta love them *snif*).
Ah, well. I guess i need to do more core stuff and see if it works out. I was really done by the time I crossed- I'm sure if I learned to breathe right I"d be doing killer times. She says my legs need oxygen, so when I breathe properly they'll get more and not cramp up/hurt as much. Makes sense.

learn to breathe.

catch my breath, look for med tent, couldn't find it, so just walked around panting. Robin gave me water.


lack of oxygen.


nice race put on by the Sheriff's Department. There was a group of cadets running in formation with their flag and singing and all that. they ran in the back and finished at 50'. I saw one of our Boy Scouts there with his HS track team.