Walk, Run, Wag for MADACC - 5K

Walk, Run, Wag for MADACC 5K - June 21, 2014

time = 23:48:94
pace = 7:40
placed 1 in my age group (40-49) out of 14
placed 4 in women out of 85
placed 15 overall out of 128

there is conflicting information regarding this finishing information.  the preliminary results put me at 3rd in my age group and i was totally happy with that!  after all that i've been going through with my leg i was just so pleased to be running pain free and FAST!

the story my garmin is telling - look at those splits!

let's go back to the beginning for a moment tho'... the weather pretty much was sucking.  it was 60 degrees which was awesome but you wouldn't know it considering it was overcast, windy, and threatening to rain at any moment.  it was so humid that the chill in the air made it seem at least 10 degrees colder.  i sat in my car talking to my sister until the absolute last second.  actually, that's a total lie... i sat in my car until about 9am and then went to the bathroom, got back in my car for a bit, got back out and asked where the start was, and then got back in my car until about 5 min until the start.  once at the start i was feeling pretty good but no one was starting at the front.  it was so weird!  everyone was about 3 or 5 feet away from the start.  i really didn't want to start in the front because i tend to take off too fast and then putter out at the end.  always with the positive split which is a no no in my book.  so we all line up and when the announcer says to get closer to the start line people moved up but not really so there i was... right in the front.  *sigh*

we took off and after about 3 tenths of a mile i notice i'm going sub-7... i dial it back and let a bunch of people pass me because i know that i cannot maintain that speed for the duration especially with how my leg has been.  we ran out on the parkway and it was pretty beautiful.  after that we did a weird little turn around and headed back the way we came.  we turned off into a neighborhood and looped around back onto the parkway.  it started drizzling in the last mile but it was ok because i was hot at that point.  in the last mile i was running right next to a guy who spit in front of us both.  i admonished him because he got me with it and we chatted for a moment about kids because as i was admonishing him i also said it was ok because i have kids.  he told me about his 4 week old and i said to get used to the spit and vomit.  he told me about getting peed on and we then talked about how hard it was to run that fast.  he complimented me on my speed which was nice because i felt like i was dying but not as bad as really dying because i was still able to hold a conversation with him.  i pulled away from him and decided to stay ahead of him the rest of the way.

on the parkway it was really cool because we were heading back as the people with dogs were heading out so we got to run past all the dogs and runners.  i was just so glad to be holding a sub-8 pace and it felt hard and effortless at the same time if that makes sense.  hard in the sense that my body was working and effortless in the sense that it was pain free and my body was absolutely capable of holding that pace for the duration.  i kicked it into high gear when i saw the finish line.  i did (as is evident by my splits from my garmin) run the last 2 miles slower than the first but i think that might have been because i was speedy gonzales and running sub-7 at first.

my garmin tells a different story than the
"official" results

afterwards i was chatting up some little boys (read: probably in their 20's) and one of them said that they were pacing me at the start because he looked at me and said "she's a runner so i'm going to stick with her".  that felt good.  i know that i'm a "runner" but i don't really always feel like a REAL runner.  i don't know what i mean by real runner but different than what i am i guess.  it was nice.  the funny thing is that all those boys passed me right away because that was right about the time i realized i was going too fast and dialed it back.  i often wonder what the outside perception of me is when i'm running races.  i always feel like i need to be faster or like i'm not doing good enough.  i always strive to be better than i was the last time and it is really hard sometimes.  maybe i'm too hard on myself, but i'm very competitive and my desire to win is strong and goes deep.

as i said before, the results were very confusing in that the preliminaries put me at 3rd and then there was a bunch of running around by the officials and they got a new print out and came back and handed me a pretty little medal with 1st place on it.  i'm not exactly complaining, but i didn't want to have a medal i didn't earn so i e-mailed the officials when i got home and asked to make sure.  i was assured that it is mine.

in this printout i'm listed as 1st in my age group
but this is the one that excludes top 3 overall

if you look at the print outs tho' it is easy to see why it is confusing.  it seems what they did was count the top 3 overall separate from the age groups so while i came in 3rd in my age group if you counted the top 3 overall together with everyone else i would be in 3rd... by counting them separate i was 1st instead.  is that how it's normally done?  i don't even know.  i've never seen it done like that i guess.  i always thought that the top 3 finishers got their medals and that they counted in their age groups as well.  maybe i'm wrong.  i have no idea really.

in this printout i'm listed as 3rd in my age group
but this one is inclusive of the top 3 overall.  see?  confusing!

i guess i'm just glad that i finished in the time i finished and did so well.  makes me feel good that my leg is doing better and i believe we're on the right track with treatment.  this race was really fun and for such a great cause. i really like what MADACC does and i'm so glad i got to support them with this run.  i had fun and i wish my husband would have been able to be here with our dogs for all the afterward fun.  maybe next year.  instead i came home and ran an additional 8 miles to make the 11 i had on my schedule for today.  while my leg didn't hurt during the 5K it did begin to feel not so good during the 8.  i'm happy with my performance on this run too tho' because i managed to maintain a pretty steady pace for most of it and it felt pretty good the whole time even tho' my leg was hurting some.  all in all today was a total success!

that dude (1304) won in his age group - 60-99.  he is 72 years old.

he finished this race in 23:52 which was only 3 seconds slower than me!  he was fast!