The moment finally arrived!!! What a weekend. All the good feels happened as we flew into the city. When I saw downtown LR, I just broke into tears. It just felt good to be home. After leaving the airport, we met my college BFF, Leslie, at Iriana's Pizza downtown. She got to meet my kiddos and vice versa. After more happy tears, we got to reminisce about fun times together.
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| Lunch at Iriana's. I knew the toddlers wouldn't look at the camera! |
Afterwards, the fam and I took a quick trip across the street and met Amanda at the expo to get our race packet. We then headed to my Uncle's house (whose family graciously hosted us) for some down time. James instantly bonded with his cousins, and everyone loved Roop.
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| Down time with the kiddos. That's a fart machine in James' hand! |
That evening, we loaded up and headed to North Little Rock for my high school cross country team reunion. It was so awesome seeing everyone and catching up with my coach.
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| Part of the team. Go Psychos! [Coach Williams, ME, Sarah, Matt, Josh, Mary, Amanda] |
The fam dropped Amanda and me off at the hotel after dinner and we spent the night talking about why the heck we registered for the combo event! LOL. We were not motivated to get up and run the next morning.
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Before I tell you about my 5k, side story: Bart Yasso was one of the announcers for the races. Amanda saw him in the hotel and accidentally called him Hal (as in Hal Higdon in case you aren't knowledgeable about the running world and need to google!)! I about died when she told me the story!! Anyway, I felt like too much of a nerd to ask for a pic with him, but it was neat to be 5 feet away from him at the start of the 5k.
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Despite the lack of motivation to wake up and run the 5k, I got more excited once I was out there. It's been 3 MONTHS since my last race. That's the longest I have ever gone without racing. I had to tell myself to tone things down and not race this because I had the marathon the next day. After talking to various running friends, I decided I would try to stay close to 8 minutes/mile, but would allow myself to run as fast as 7:45/mile.
The weather was perfect. It seemed like it would be chilly, high 30s. I wore my capris, a short sleeve top, and arm warmers thinking I might be cold. Since the sun was beaming, it was so comfortable. I wish we could have traded this weather with Sunday's marathon weather.
When the race started, I had to let everyone pass me. I couldn't let that tempt me to go fast. I decided to just go by feel and make sure the legs felt like they were running easy. When I hit mile 1, my watch read [7:34]. UGH! TOO FAST. I was pissed at myself. I just kept thinking about how my legs would be toast if I kept that up. I tried to slow down tremendously the second mile and ended up running [7:46]. Better, but still at the fast end of my range.
It was around this time that we split from the 10k'ers. It thinned things out a bit, but there were a lot of spectators which made it fun. I knew that the top 10 received an award, but I had no idea what place I was in. I kept going back and forth with one girl the whole race, and I felt the need to tell her I wasn't trying to race! I didn't, but I just kept feeling like she was trying to race me. I was getting annoyed by it so I slowed down a bit more to let her get ahead of me. I just didn't want the temptation to race!
When I finished, my final Garmin stats were 3.13 miles in
24:03.
My final mile was [7:55]. I still had no idea how I placed so I went to the results tent to print off my results. I BARELY made the final cut!! I was the 10th overall female (of 845) and 4th (of 96) in my age group. The lady I let ahead of me in the third mile finished 14 seconds ahead of me and the 11th place person was only 4 seconds behind me! I never looked back so it was pure luck that she didn't pass me to get the 10th spot.
**********
I will have a separate race report for my marathon, but, looking back, I will likely never do a combo race again. It just doesn't make sense for me. I just can't think of any situation in which I would want to do that the day before a full or half. Especially if I had any sort of goal in mind. It's just not for me! Even though the race felt easy in the moment, my legs told me otherwise the next morning. I think it did make me a little tired. I should have treated it as a shake out run, but who pays for a shake out run?! I had to run it faster than shake out pace! Lesson learned...one and done on the combos!
**********
Two more things:
Amanda and I met up with Leeann, Felicia, and other Columbus runners for a delicious brunch after the 5k/10k!
We also went back to the expo later that day for a little shopping. I bought some throwaway gloves for future races (only $3 for two pairs!), a new pair of running sunglasses, and this amazing shirt:
**********
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| The start line! All of the fast people getting ready. |
Despite the lack of motivation to wake up and run the 5k, I got more excited once I was out there. It's been 3 MONTHS since my last race. That's the longest I have ever gone without racing. I had to tell myself to tone things down and not race this because I had the marathon the next day. After talking to various running friends, I decided I would try to stay close to 8 minutes/mile, but would allow myself to run as fast as 7:45/mile.
The weather was perfect. It seemed like it would be chilly, high 30s. I wore my capris, a short sleeve top, and arm warmers thinking I might be cold. Since the sun was beaming, it was so comfortable. I wish we could have traded this weather with Sunday's marathon weather.
 |
| Look at all of that beautiful sunshine! |
When the race started, I had to let everyone pass me. I couldn't let that tempt me to go fast. I decided to just go by feel and make sure the legs felt like they were running easy. When I hit mile 1, my watch read [7:34]. UGH! TOO FAST. I was pissed at myself. I just kept thinking about how my legs would be toast if I kept that up. I tried to slow down tremendously the second mile and ended up running [7:46]. Better, but still at the fast end of my range.
It was around this time that we split from the 10k'ers. It thinned things out a bit, but there were a lot of spectators which made it fun. I knew that the top 10 received an award, but I had no idea what place I was in. I kept going back and forth with one girl the whole race, and I felt the need to tell her I wasn't trying to race! I didn't, but I just kept feeling like she was trying to race me. I was getting annoyed by it so I slowed down a bit more to let her get ahead of me. I just didn't want the temptation to race!
When I finished, my final Garmin stats were 3.13 miles in
24:03.
 |
| One race down, one to go! |
My final mile was [7:55]. I still had no idea how I placed so I went to the results tent to print off my results. I BARELY made the final cut!! I was the 10th overall female (of 845) and 4th (of 96) in my age group. The lady I let ahead of me in the third mile finished 14 seconds ahead of me and the 11th place person was only 4 seconds behind me! I never looked back so it was pure luck that she didn't pass me to get the 10th spot.
**********
I will have a separate race report for my marathon, but, looking back, I will likely never do a combo race again. It just doesn't make sense for me. I just can't think of any situation in which I would want to do that the day before a full or half. Especially if I had any sort of goal in mind. It's just not for me! Even though the race felt easy in the moment, my legs told me otherwise the next morning. I think it did make me a little tired. I should have treated it as a shake out run, but who pays for a shake out run?! I had to run it faster than shake out pace! Lesson learned...one and done on the combos!
**********
Two more things:
Amanda and I met up with Leeann, Felicia, and other Columbus runners for a delicious brunch after the 5k/10k!
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| The Root Café. Such a yummy place! |
We also went back to the expo later that day for a little shopping. I bought some throwaway gloves for future races (only $3 for two pairs!), a new pair of running sunglasses, and this amazing shirt:
 |
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