Another great weekend weather wise, meant another great weekend outdoors!
It all started with a PR in a 5k. I can't even tell you how excited I am that I was able to do this in my race. I beat my previous time by nearly a minute! But there is a small downside as well.
I iced my groin/inner thigh all afternoon on Friday at work. I was so worried about it that I actually told Luke that I may DNS in the morning. I would still dress but I may not run if it's really bothering me Saturday morning. Woke up Saturday morning though and I didn't even feel the pain. I even got out 3 Advil but totally forgot to take them beforehand and didn't really even feel it too much during the race! Ice helps people!
The race began at 9am so it was a great start time considering that Luke, my friend Wes & I spent the evening before at a bar watching a Beatles cover band. Not the best idea to be standing on your feet all evening the night before a race! All the blood pools in your feet then and swells them!
Wes wore his standard jeans (yes, that's what he does) and I wore leggings and Luke wore shorts. I could see my breath at the start of the race, it was a very chilly morning but the sun was out!
As I picked up my packet, I saw a girl, about my age wearing 26.2 earrings and figured she'll be the one to beat (I usually pick one out in a race to try to beat). I ended up not seeing her at the start but she stopped to tie her shoe about 1/2 mile into the race and I passed her. Then she caught up with me and passed me immediately on my left. But she stayed a few feet in front of me in the race. I was always behind her.
Just after one mile, I saw a kid walking, then he would run again and then he would walk again. I remembered something almost identical to this from the last 5k in Belvidere. He started running as I came up to him. I told him that it's OK to walk and that he can walk until the pain stops and his breathing is good and then he can run again and he'll be faster, I promise. But he stayed with me. And so I kept talking to him. Encouraging him, like I did with my other friend in the 10k. This kid seemed to be keeping up with me. His breathing was a bit tough to listen to though. I kept saying that he can walk but he refused to.
I made him promise me earlier that if he leaves me, he needs to find me after the race but I wasn't going to leave him. At the home stretch, I told him that he can leave me if he feels like it. Then he took off (thanking me as he left :) ) so then I tried taking off as well. And I told him that now he was going to lead me and I'm gonna try to stay with him. but I couldn't keep up too much. I was too worried about him, watching him to really find the girl again but I knew she was ahead of me.
As I getting closer to the row of balloons, I looked at the clock and saw that it just flipped 24 minutes. WTF? Could I really do this in 24 minutes? I've never done that before. Sure enough. 24:29 was my finishing time. Wow. I knew my miles were fast cause of my Garmin but geez, I didn't know it was that fast. Like I didn't do the math while I was out there.
But the kid finished. I saw Wes & Luke at the end cheering me on. I saw them after the race and was telling them about the kid. I saw the kid & his mom and went over there and told him that he did great and the mom was really protective like he's fine, he's fine. I told her that I was helping him along. He stayed with me the entire time. Apparently, he's a cross country runner and his season ended a few weeks ago and hasn't ran too much since then.
We went inside for the food & awards. Luke got 1st place in his age group. That was awesome! The girl in front of me? Got third place in our age group. I wasn't sure by how much though not until they results were posted. So all day on Saturday, I was playing what-if games. What if I wasn't helping that kid and talking so much? What if I had kept my 2nd mile under 8 minutes instead of slowing down for the kid? What if I had paid attention at the end and seen her and given it just a little more? Plus, wouldn't it have been so cool and awesome if both Luke and I placed in our age groups?! Wes also did great, running 22:44. His goal was to run under 24 minutes and he totally beat that by a landslide!!
I did tear up a little bit when I got the text message from Wes saying that I had lost by a second. Yes, seriously by 1 second. (the race posted the results later that afternoon when I was out grocery shopping) She's 25, I'm 29. But he responded back saying that I still got a PR and helped a little kid and I was a better person for it. So I guess that's that.
Luke & I ended up going to Rock Cut later on that afternoon so he can run and I mtn biked behind him. Still couldn't keep up on the bloody bike. I had my Garmin with me. I also took video & pictures of him running. That was interesting to show him how he ran.
Sunday we did the same thing only this time, I was on my own mtn biking. I went my normal route and he did his. Come to find out we had a few of the same routes! And I found out that I split from his at one point, normally, never having gone his way until we went running. It was funny though because since I was on my bike, not following anyone, I went my way and then I looked up and saw that he would normally turn right and I was like whoa. That's weird!
I also gave Luke my Garmin to wear. We wanted to know exactly how fast he goes on the trails without having to wait for me to get up the hills on my bike or whathaveyou. Average pace of 6:32 for hills. Yea. Have I mentioned how much I hate the guy? :-)
Unfortunately, Luke was never able to go biking because he forgot his clipless shoes in his car while we took my car to Rock Cut. But as I was biking up to the parking lot, I passed a former instructor of mine from Rock Valley. I met her a few times at races around the area so I knew she was a runner. Luke came down and we got to talk about running with her and she has trail shoes that I'm now thinking of going to look for a pair. I mean, if I'm gonna keep trying to kick this trail's arse I might as well get the shoes to do it with! :-) But I do need to know his route a little better before I go out on my own again!
This week it's supposed to snow. So I think this last weekend was the last good weekend we're going to have until Spring time. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'll still be outside when there's snow on the ground but there's just something about sun & warmish weather I adore!
Below are three Bones in Motion stats. The race, me mtn biking with Luke and then Luke's run itself. Still can't get over the splits for his. Sooooo not fair.
Activity
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posted from bimactive.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Activity
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posted from bimactive.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Activity
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posted from bimactive.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
