Racing

Well everyone, another week or so has gone by and I have finally completed my first race with my new training group! Let me start by first saying this week was a very stressful one. On Sunday I got up at eight am to head to the Pittsburgh area to meet my friends Becky and Emma who were accompanying me on my road trip to Boston where I would be getting the remained of my stuff for my move back. We drove about nine or so hours and arrived where we spent a very hot and stuffy evening in my unairconditioned room. The next day we did a nice run around the wonderful Jamaica Pond which I will miss very much. The weather was breezy and awesome. We also did some sight seeing and had some seafood at Legal Seafood. It was excellent. The next day we packed and I did a brief workout before we went to Fire and Ice stir fry and then saw the movie Bling Ring. I cannot say that I recommend this move. Sorry Emma Watson. Anyway, the next day we skipped town and I headed back to Ohio where I promptly returned the rental car and went to bed in order to get up at six am for the Medina Twin Sizzler 5k.

The alarm went off at 5:50 and I was pretty shocked because I was exhausted and could not quite believe it. I quickly grabbed my bag, had some toast and headed out the door. I arrived in Medina and was surprised that it did not seem that all that many people were there yet, but I suppose I may have been earlier than most racers. After checking in and receiving my complimentary t shirt I ran into my teammate Lizzie and we started our warm up. Unfortunately, all those people who were not registering when I was began registering just shortly before the race was supposed to begin and therefore it was delayed. We were getting anxious so we decided to get a good spot at the start of the race. I like to be in front so I can get out, but it NEVER fails that several men or boys will stand in front of me. For instance, I heard one boy who looked about high school age say that he planned to run around a 19:30 and then he proceeded to get in my way. EXCUSE ME, I don't recall you asking me if I had planned to run around that pace or slower so please step aside. Anyway, I didn't actually say anything because I figured there were three + miles to get around any overconfident racers.

Finally, after some delay, the horn/gun or whatever goes off and we plunged into a downhill (yay). Therefore, the start was fast. I was nervous, probably over eager and as many people know about me...I have a tendency to go out way too fast. I was probably 800 meters in when I heard two girls coming up behind me saying we were on target for about 5:33 through the mile. NO. Too fast. So I casually let them slip in front of me and I figured I'd hang on to them. We came through mile one just under 5:50. I was okay with this but was hoping for around 5:45. I knew I could not let up, but this is when the rolling hills started. That's when I started playing my favorite game- boy catching. See, my favorite part of racing post college is that there are guys in the race, and more often than not they would rather you do not pass them. My strategy is to catch up to one and speed up as they do when they see me at their side. I then attempt to either stay with them or pass. If I do pass I look to the next one. This worked well for me through mile two. We had a little bit of a downhill just after mile two, but I knew that just as we had started on the downhill we would indeed finish on an uphill. There was one girl ahead of me so I focused on keeping her in my sight as we headed down the stretch just before the hill. With about 300 meters to go I reached the hill and it was pretty ugly. It was gradual and yet just steep enough so that despite the fact that you are moving as fast as you can, you really are not going all that fast. I could see that I was under 18 minutes and I was pleased, but I knew it would be hard to stay under through the finish. As the hill leveled out just before the line I sprinted as fast as I could and clocked an 18:08. I was very pleased and felt really strong. Afterwards I enjoyed refreshments, chats with competitors and a brief awards ceremony. Overall a great way to start off my racing and a great way to start the 4th of July.