Running smart

I know. It's been a few days.

So, my goals for the Freihofer's were:

C. Beat my last 5K time: 28:26

B. Beat my last Freihofer's time of 27:58 (I need to double check this!)

A. 26:30 or better

I didn't do it.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly disappointed, but this year the cards just seemed stacked against me.

For the first time I was able to see the starting line from where I was. The first year there were hundreds of women in front of me. This year I was in the 3rd corral and could see the elites and the road ahead! Crazy. I started out strong with a good first mile and got slower with the second and even slower with the third. It was WICKED hot. I didn't go to the bathroom before the race and I wound up having some complications from that. And then in the home stretch when I wanted to speed up, my shoelace came undone. For the first time ever.

I kept switching sides when I was running to try and stay in the shade and I freely admit that I didn't "empty my tank" (well, I emptied one of them, hahaha). In fact at the finish line when most women stopped or passed out, I kept on running. I could have run longer. I think I'm okay with that now. I didn't stop to walk, I didn't have to visit the medical tent, didn't pass out, didn't vomit. Didn't collapse. There will be other races when I can give it my all, but when it's already 79 degrees at 9 in the morning and I have EIGHT KIDNEY STONES and four little children to go home to (they were at soccer and missed the big race)... well... I think I ran smart even if I didn't run exceptionally fast.

I wound up finishing with a net time of 28:30 (gun time 28:45. I was only 15 seconds from the start!).

How cool are these results? I mean, the layout, not the time.

My friends all ran great and did really well in the heat. It's so nice to be a part of a supportive group.

I'm taking this week off from running and exercising and trying to get to all the things I've neglected. Laundry, toilets, my poor garden. I've been doing tech support with our wireless network and security camera for the last 2-3 days. Today we had a birthday party from Chewie who has managed to turn 4. I need to start planning Lightrunner's first birthday party next month. I see the stone specialist on Friday and hope I have some more answers and a plan for these stones. My next planned race will be the 10 mile Clove Run in August (on my 11th anniversary. Maybe I'll run the 1 mile fun run with the kids to make it 11 total!). I'm not thinking about that yet though. I'm keeping my fridge plan-free for a little while.