Balls out
That was my mindset for this race. Last year was the inaugural race and I had paired it with my long run of the week. So, I ran an extra 6 miles and then tacked on this race at the end. The race is a fundraiser for my school's cross country teams. They always have some decent teams with some exceptional coaches (one is a BQer that finished in the top 75 last year, the other is considered one of the top female runners in the state). It's a small race, but it's a lot of fun. Here's my criteria for me to qualify it as a race:
- A t-shirt - CHECK
- Bib number - CHECK
This is one of the very few races where I line up at the front. At the sound of "go", we were off. It's a pretty flat route, so I knew that my Balls Out strategy was going to work. Sure enough, I looked down at my Garmin and it read "6:43" for pace. Hmmm, might want to dial it down a notch. I settled into a relatively comfortable pace until Spanish Teacher sidled up next to me. He eventually passed me and I managed to maintain my 250 yard distance behind him throughout the race. He was incorporating the walk/run strategy and he stopped at the one and only drink station twice and I still couldn't catch him. DAMNIT!
When all was said and done, I had to "settle" for a 5K PR and 2nd in the High School Teacher division, though. I destroyed my old PR by about 45 seconds! Wow, those supplements from the Red Sox clubhouse are paying off.
Finishing Time - 23:27
*A BIG congrats to Jess who went to the hospital yesterday to have their baby! Jump over to her website to congratulate her!
9 comments:
Congratulations on the PR! And the 2nd place HS AG pride award. The intervals you have been doing must have worked.
Congrats on the PR! I guess the Spanish teacher was just en fuego.
I kill me sometimes. :)
Gotta love a PR! Congrats!
My first idea for a comment was stolen by Nitmos and my second was used by X.
Dang it.
Nice PR though!
Congrats on the PR. I'm chalking it up to the scenery, but intervals may have helped too.
GIANT eye roll to the Team Nebraska people. If any of you are reading this: your little red jackets and pants ANNOY ME!
PR is always great reason to smile. don't take it for granted and don't get gready with wanting something 'even' better.
NICE WORK on the PR. Taking 2nd place in the teachers bracket is nothing to shake a stick at.
Thank god there weren't any race pictures... especially since your race strategy was "balls out".
Great job on the PR!
Sometimes I feel like gouging out the eyes of all the elite runners who show up to small races. Seriously, give us a break. We all know you run sub-5:00s, let someone else have a medal for once! Yeesh!
WOW congratulations!!! That is a crazy fast PR.
Sometimes I think the "balls out" approach is best. At least if you go hard from the beginning and then give up when you can't do anymore, you know you didn't leave anything on the table. Whereas it sucks if you try to sprint at the end and discover you could have gone faster sooner.
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