First 10K Run Since Reedy River

This evening I ran my first 10K run since the Reedy River 10K! It felt great to finally get a long run in! First 1/2 mile with my 2 dogs then I finished the rest on my own. First 4 miles was a bit of a struggled but finished the last 2 miles I finished strong. I stretched for a good 30 mins afterwards. Love runs like that when you feel like you're never going to finish only to realize that after you finish you felt you could do even more and that a half marathon may not be impossible after all!

Race Report: Swamp Rabbit 5K

I don't even know where to begin with the race but one word will sum it up: TERRIBLE.

This has to be by far my worst race experience ever! It was 6:30pm on a Friday night and of course, trying to leave work on Friday is already hard to do. Once I got there, I had to park what seemed to be a half mile away from packet pickup table which made me wish I took advantage of early packet pickup and already had my race number and t-shirt (oh well, live and learn).

As we lined up, I quickly realized just how crowded this race was going to be. I wanted to avoid walkers and slower runners so I decided to start in the 7-9 min pace group in hopes to avoid them. Wrong, I ran right into the back of this one women who after just a quarter of a mile was already walking. Then there was a lot of constant weaving around slower runners and trying to avoid potholes (which I missed one time and nearly twisted my ankle (it was fine).

It was hot and humid and I was in desire need of a water stop but once I came up on, there was a long line. I waited for a good minute and when I realized I wasn't going to get a sip of water anytime soon, I just kept going. Little did I know between that and the next was a killer quad burning hill!

Now I was wishing I had taken my fuel belt. By the time we hit the Swamp Rabbit Trail (a narrow paved trail), I was hoping it would thin out some...wrong! Now I was getting elbowed, triped and pushed off the path. Some areas would become so bottled neck and slow that my Garmin auto-paused a few times.


Needless to say I finished in a miserable time of 36:59. I haven't ran a 5K that slow since my first few months of running last year. Anyways, once I crossed the finish line, the misery didn't end there and I'm going through what seemed to be the longest chute ever, I'm looking around for the volunteers handing out water. To my shock, they are handing out shot cups of water and there is a long long line for it! WTF! Now I'm just pissed off. Thirsty, tired, hot and dizzy, I use what little energy I have left to stumble to my car that seems like it's now 2 miles away and head home with absolutely no desire and no way I'm doing that race ever again!

Race Report: Skirt Chaser 5K

This was a unique race where women got a 3 min head start over the guys. So I went in with a completely different strategy...well not really a strategy but more of a let's see what happens if I go as hard as I can from the start until the first guy catches up to me and then do whatever from that point on.

The women lined up but not many wanted to be in the front so I took this opportunity to see what that's like for the first time as I normally line up somewhere in the middle of the pack. The race started out with 2 laps around the track and those two laps I averaged a very fast 7:30 pace which I didn't even know I could do that and wasn't even all that winded, sure I was breathing hard but not out of breath.

Once I exited the track and hit the grass then asphalt, I had slowed down to a more reasonable 9:30 pace and as I was just about to hit the 1 mile mark when the first guy had caught up and passed me.

And that's when things started getting really difficult and was really feeling the effects of starting out way too fast but I didn't care. For the first time, I got to experience what it felt like to run in 5th place even if it was just for the first 1/2 mile.

Anyways back to mile 2...it was a real struggle as there was a long steep hill took all the energy I had left and the last mile felt like it was 5 miles long! I walked a lot that last mile and that's where I lost all my time too. The last tenth mile was on the infield of the track and going from asphalt to grass when you have nothing left is extremely difficult. The grass felt like mud and I felt like I had to use even more energy just to keep running. Still I had a blast even with the 100% humidity...yes 100% humidity, there were dark clouds above but it never did open up although I don't think I would of minded!