The (not so) Valiant Return to Racing

What better way to celebrate my return to blogging than with a race report, right? Oh, yes. That's right. I raced! I wouldn't believe it either, had I not been the one that actually toed that line. Ian's been badgering me to race for almost two years so I guess it finally got to me.

My original plan was to run a 5K in mid-October to test my fitness, but last Friday a link to a local, EXTREMELY low-key, first year 5K with proceeds going to the Heart & Stroke Foundation was posted on facebook. Since it was right across the street and in the park I run in almost daily, I was a bit frustrated by the $30 entry fee (no shirt because I was doing a day-of-race entry). All was forgiven when I found out that I was getting the full $30 in a tax receipt though.

When I got there, I was really happy to see very few people were actually at the race and even fewer who looked like they could actually run fast. A friend/former teacher/client of mine was there with her kids which made the few minutes pre-race much easier to deal with, but I was still having a pretty major freak-out. I haven't road raced since... well... I actually can't remember, but I haven't toed a start line for a running race since highschool (albeit my last race would have been on the track). With coach out of town, I reached for the iphone and sent JH an SOS. She was nice enough to talk me off the ledge and make fun of me for being on it in the first place.

Despite knowing the course VERY well, there was still a bit of shock as to how hard it actually was. You are either going up a hill or down a hill. There is only one short (about 50 meters) section that is somewhat flat. I had a couple of guys close in front of me that I worked off of and I rode the pain train the whole way though. There was some pretty awesome lower back pain on the second loop causing the desire to both barf & walk (it's tough to keep running hard through pain when you are passing walkers), but I never gave up. Despite not running negative splits which really puts me off, I was only about 15 seconds slower on the second loop. Considering how long it's been since I've raced, I'll take it.

I finished 4th overall and 1st woman. While that sounds awesome, there was really no one there so I'm taking it for what it's worth. My time was u-g-l-y, expectedly, but coach thinks that course would add a solid minute over a flat course. If I still race in October, I'll be able to see. And although there were no awards, I did end up winning a draw prize: matching necklace & earrings. I'm sure those will go to great use.

Just as an aside... Despite how hard that race was and how much I was hurting, I'd rather do it again than write race reports. They're almost as shitty to write as they are to read.