Race Report: Sounds of Spring 5K

The Sounds of Spring 5K was a small race put on locally for the sole pupose of helping out one family.  Their son (who looked to be around 7 or 8 but I’m no expert on kids) is hearing impaired.  Their insurance company has denied their claims for a hearing aid, and they couldn’t afford to pay for it on their own.  Enter the running community.  All proceeds from this race went directly to that family so that their son would be able to hear the Sounds of Spring.  (It was announced at the awards ceremony that the family would be receiving a check for a little over $2,800, which should cover the entire cost of the hearing device.)

I had but one goal for today:  break 28 minutes.

The race started at 8:00, and I got there around 7:30.  I left the house a little early because I wasn’t exactly sure where the church that was hosting the race was located, and I wanted to be sure to allow myself time to find it, check in, take my race t-shirt back to the truck, stretch, etc.  While I was doing all that, I found my friend, B, that I had talked into registering for this race!  Yay!  So we chit-chatted and she introduced me to A, another friend of hers that was there.  After just a few minutes they announced that it was time to start making our way to the start line, which was probably a quarter-mile or so up the road at the top of a huge hill.  Seriously.  HUGE.  Like we were getting winded walking up it huge.  So when everyone made it to the start line, the race director yelled GO, and off we went.

I FLEW down that hill.  It was so steep that I seriously couldn’t keep from it!  But little did I know that when it leveled off that was IT in terms of elevation.  The rest of the course was pancake flat.  I slowed down tremendously after that initial decline and was running where I thought I needed to be to get my sub-28.  It wasn’t until my Garmin chimed mile 1 that I realized I hadn’t slowed down enough.

Mile 1 – 8:19.  A very unsustainable pace for me.  Woops.

But I tried to look at it from the “banked time” perspective.  I honestly didn’t feel like I was going that fast.  But it would catch up with me later.

Oh, and B?  Yeah, this was her first 5K ever and she had already passed me.  (Note to self:  Stop recruiting people unless you know they are slower than you.)

I am always so surprised at how much harder it feels for me to run on totally flat terrain.  It defies all logic, but I swear it’s true.

Mile 2 – 9:01.  Perfect.  Now just hang on to that.

And I do hang on to it for approximately 10 more seconds, and then I feel the too-fast-too-soon catching up to me.  I glanced down at my watch somewhere around 2.25 and see my pace has slowed even more to around 9:20.  Not great, but it’s enough to still get me a sub-28.  And then we rounded the final curve that put us straight into the wind.

F-word.

I hate wind.  I mean I really, really, really hate wind.  But I just hunkered down and plugged along as best I could.

Mile 3 – 9:34.  Positive splits, anyone?

When I finally saw the finish line, I knew I had met my time goal, but I kicked it in (what little bit of a kick I had left in me) anyway just to make sure no one passed me right at the finish.  (They didn’t.)

Official time – 27:51.

YAY!  Goal achieved!

After I crossed the finish line, I met back up with B (She KILLED her first 5K with a time of 25:47) and we just stood around chatting with folks and stretching until everyone finished the course, then we went inside for the awards ceremony.

I’ll spare you all the details up until the 30-34 female age group.  Some fast chick got first place, and B got second!  BIG YAY FOR B!  (Addendum to note to self:  If you continue to recruit people who might be faster than you, make sure they are not in your age group.)

And guess who got 3rd.

Go ahead.  Guess.

YUP!  It was me!  😀

Try not to be too jealous of my awesome prize.

I finally got to hear my name called at an award’s ceremony!  (I technically had a podium finish in my last 5K, but it wasn’t recognized, so it didn’t really count.)

While I’m overall happy that I met my only goal, I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t exceed it by more.  If I hadn’t started out so fast, I feel like I could have held on better in the end.  Ah well.  Rookie mistakes.  I’ll do better next time!

Me, B & A after the race.  I am obviously incapable of NOT looking like a total two-bagger in photo these days.