It really was a good race.

The Red Shoe Run.

There was a 5K that I ran and a 10 miler (that was almost cancelled).  As I mentioned Saturday, we had storms and flooding all night.  Right before the race, a water main broke on the 10 mile course.  I joked with the guy who I was asking about it that they could turn it into a biathlon.

(Side note: Since I wrote that I don’t put pictures in my blog much, I have had one everyday.  Hmmm.)

Okay, why was my race a good race?

I ran the way I wanted.  I knew I didn’t want to hurt my hip, but I did want to do as well as I could.  So I went at it with 2 goals in mind.  The first was that I wanted to keep at least an 8:00 pace.  This is my half marathon pace and I felt that I could do that and not get hurt.  The second was that I wanted to run to feel.  I didn’t want to push so hard that I felt like I was dying, but I did want to do well.

I accomplished both goals.  I ended at a 7:50 pace and I only felt winded twice.  Once was when I had to run hard to get past a 7 year old boy. 🙂  This was about a half mile into the race.  Every time I started to catch him, he would speed up.  In the beginning I was impressed, but after a while he really kept getting in my way.  So I ran hard around him and moved on.

Actually at the 2.5 mile point, my hip started hurting me and I just made myself relax.  I have found if I consciously tell my self to relax, it usually gets better and it did.

The last time I pushed to hard was at the very end.  I had just passed a 28 year old on the last hill.  He didn’t like that very much.  As I rounded the corner to go to the finish, he went flying past me.  Not to be outdone by a young wiper snapper, I ran as hard as I could to catch up.  I got close and then…  my hip… stupid…  what was I doing!  I was running at a 6:00 pace in a race that I was so careful in not to get hurt.  So I pulled back, let him beat me and feel better about himself by beating a 51 year old man and finished at my 8:00 pace a few seconds behind him.

This was the first 5K that I actually enjoyed.  I usually feel dread hitting me because of pushing too hard on the 1st mile and push through anyway.  This time I just set my goal and kept it.

I finished in 24:17 (about 2.5 minutes slower than my PR).  I finished 1st in my age group and 2nd in the 40 and up category.  26th out of 238.

TJ finished 2nd in his age group and 9th overall!

So, it was a good race.  One that I will think back on and smile.  I honestly didn’t think I even placed, I just wanted to have fun.

I had fun.