Personal Best
Posted by lauraph2009 on July 11, 2009
Today at the 5K I ran hard and finished in record time – 30:22. The Gaffney Peach Festival 5K was a nice race – it was well run, it wasn’t too crowded, but a nice enough crowded and volunteers that cheered everyone on.
I got some nice goodies:
The official race tee shirt
All the other loot - another tee, towel, pens, lotion, first aid kit, calendar, clips and pamphlets
I knew there was going to be a hill during the first mile so even though I came out strong I held back a bit so I would be able to manage the hill ok. It turned out not to be much of a hill. When I got to the top I realized that my pace was 10:15 – that is not good enough to finish in 30 minutes or less so I picked up the pace. For the next two miles my Garmin had my average pace at 9:30 – which is excellent – the fastest I have ever run. Then mid way through mile two a HILL. An unexpected hill and I was going full speed. It was not terribly steep, but pretty long. About half way up I was really sucking wind. My legs were strong and they wanted to keep going, but I was really having a hard time with my breath. I decided I needed to slow my pace… I did, but it wasn’t enough. I had to walk and catch my breath. I walked for about 15-20 seconds and took off – unfortunately that wasn’t enough and I had to take another 15 second walk break. The nice thing is that when I got to the top my breathing recovered quickly. I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor so I do not know how high my HR got, but I am sure it was good.
At the top it looked nice and level, even slightly downhill, all the way to the finish. I picked my pace up again and really pushed hard. I thought the finish line was in sight so I gave it all I had, just to find out that I kicked it a bit too soon. I had to let up for a bit and when I really did see it again I pulled out all the stops.
The last few meters were great, my legs were strong and my breath was controlled and deep. I realized at one point that someone was running really fast behind me. I could see out of the corner of my eye that it was this young, strong guy – looked like he was a high school track star. He was right on my heels and I was determined to beat him. I crossed the finish line a few seconds before him and was marveling at my accomplishment….. I soon realized that he crossed the finish line in the shoot next to me – the 10K finish line!! hahaha – I actually starting chuckling to myself. This kid that I beat just finished 6.2 miles – to my 3.1. It was pretty funny if I do say so myself!!
The crowd at the finish line was great – lots of cheering – the main reason I like to run races!
They had a nice spread – bananas, water, Gatorade, bagels and of course, peaches.
