The Firecracker 5k takes place in the middle of town, a point to point, helping it to be super fast. I really meant to train for it! Cramming in a track workout 5 days before doesn't really count, but it did help my confidence.
Also helping my confidence these days is the Queen of the Mountain (or flats, whatever) segments that I can win on my newfound competitive outlet, Strava. All I need is a former state champion cyclist's wheel to hang on, and maybe a better idea of where these segments begin and end, and I'll be cleaning up. I had the former this week for my initial few titles, and it was super exciting to get all those little trophies, however temporary they may be.
Anyway, back to the 5k. I warmed up 2 very slow miles between a porta potty stop and trying to find some bushes because I was NOT standing in that line again. I headed to the starting line, where the day's lineup was being announced by a familiar voice--an old Memphis teammate of mine. Then I saw another familiar face in the RD. I'll sidetrack again by saying that if you race Start to Finish events often, you may not realize how spoiled you are until you get to, like, southern New Mexico (hypothetically speaking of course). Only then do you realize how much of a difference all the little things, like an awards ceremony an hour after race start, and big things, like instantaneous printable and online results, make.
So, the race! I felt like I wasn't warmed up sufficiently for the first mile. My "bad" hip was feeling ok, but the "better" one was extra painful, as was my knee. Hoardes of women sprinted out ahead of me, and I slowly drew a few back in within the first mile, in 6:15. We started with a few rollers, but it smoothed out by the mile mark.
The second mile is usually the hardest in a 5k, isn't it? It's really starting to hurt and you're not close to being finished. Well this one was perfect. It contained exactly one small uphill; the rest was downhill. I picked off a few more women. 6:00
The third mile started out still going down, but quickly became painful as we turned a corner to a long gradual uphill that hurt my legs, lungs, and brain. Knowing I was going to be killing my average pace, I didn't dare look at my Garmin. Who wants to witness the average pace jump like that? I figured it would be about 8 minutes, with the fatigue I was feeling, but I made it in 6:30. An endless .15 mi later the finish line came and I crossed, with a 19:27, and immediately puts hands to knees to reduce the pain. The photographer finally came over to check on me since I was probably obstructing his view of the runners crossing the tape. Oops.
My cool down consisted of running the course backward to cheer and get back to my car. But chatting along the way made me miss my AG award, which I believe was 2nd or 3rd, given that a couple of the other 7 women that beat me were old like me. The award I was really going for was first OA in the hip dysplasia category. I'm pretty sure I won that one.
Glad my face of pain is obstructed here
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