Saturday morning dawned warm and overcast. By race time it was 24C, but it felt like 27C with the humidity. There were some clouds, but the sun came out just in time for the race start. There was a bit of a breeze, which turned out to be a headwind on the way back.
The course itself is flat, with only small undulations along the route. It's an out and back on newly paved asphalt. The event had about 600 participants in the women's only 5K. My friend Jen and I started out near the back of the pack... I knew after last year that the racers would be really fast and I didn't want to get caught up in the madness that is mid-pack at Emilie's run!
I'm happy to report that my gun time was 35:02, which is what I was shooting for. I finished 34/41 in my age group. My garmin tells me that I ran 34:43, as it took some time to get across the start line. My splits, according to sportstats, were 7:16, 7:10, 7:07 and 7:06 and 6:25.
I'm very proud of the fact that: a) I ran the whole thing, from start to finish. b) I didn't blow up. And, c) I ran negative splits.
Like I said the other day, I knew a personal best was out of reach. And even if I'd been 100% healthy, a personal best would've been tough given the heat and humidity. I had lots left in the tank at the end. I'm not sore today, two days after the race, and I wasn't sore yesterday either. But I sure was tired on Saturday night!
I'm looking forward to my next race, the National Capital 5K, on July 31st. In the meantime, I'm going to work on improving my endurance and most especially hills, as the next course is all downhill on the way out and almost entirely uphill on the way back. Ouch!
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