Saturday, March 7, 2009

St. Bridget's 5k


This morning was the St. Bridget's 5k.
Sometimes I get frustrated with neighborhood 5k's b/c of the chaos, but this one is a little different. Not only is it where I go to church, but it is also where my god friend's daughter goes to Kindergarten.

My friend Katharine and I jogged the 1.5 mi down to the church for a little warm-up. We met up with some friends and then it was time to get to the start line.

Ummmm where is the start line? And the mass chaos began. But today I was liek "eh. whatever". The sound the horn and we are off.
The start of the race was like letting a bunch of wild animals out of their cages. One little boy fell and skinned his knees, right at the start. I paused and saw someone comign to his rescue so I continued on. Poor little guy.

First mile feels good - downhill, oh yeah baby! The goal changed from running a solid pace, to not running over a kid. It was great seeing so many kids out there so excited to be active and participate in the event. You could over hear some of them talking about pacing and not going out too strong and asking if it was okay to walk, etc. Very sweet.
we have an out and back and I as I am coning back around I see parents instructing their kids to just go forward and avoid the out and back. For real?! Don't teach your children to cheat. If you don't want your child to do it because of their fitness level and not get injured I can undersand but one woman was clearly just lazy and that made my skin curl.
Then came the 2nd mile marker. I look at my watch
16:52
Holy Mother of God.
That's an 8:26 pace.
Heck yeah.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
That would be losing it.
The last mile took me 10 minutes.
Yes, 10 minutes.
I finished in 27 minutes and change for roughly an 8:57 +/- pace.
Um, oops.
My shin was btohering me up the hill - rememebr me saying that we started downhill. yeah that means we finished uphill. Uphill and shins don't get along. I cold feel them tightening and so I walked up the hill. I have one angel on my shoulder telling me to suck it up. I had the other angel on my shoulder telling me it's not worth inflamming my leg for a neighborhood 5k. I know the second angel is the one to listen to, but it is swallowing a little pride to walk up a hill in a 5k. Damn that pride.
Damn my shins.
But I finished. And had good friends there with me.
So all in all - it was a good day.
Now off to do some speed work on the bike (who's a glutton for punishment?)
Then...target day, baby! woo-hoo!
Happy 70 degree weather weekend!

PS - Go Ironman Will!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good job Favey! Say hi to princess mohawk...

TriGirl 40 said...

You looked like a super speedy bulldog out there! Congrats on a great 5K.

Anonymous said...

I thought I heard a sonic boom somewhere in the Richmond vicinity Saturday morning...must have been you!