Yesterday was the Kishwaukee Sunrise Rotary 8k. It was a pretty good race. This is my 3rd time running it. I managed to set a PR in it as well. But still came 4th in my age group, making me 1st loser. Made up for it for being the first to win a random raffle drawing and I choose Kane County Cougar tickets!
On Friday night, I took my Garmin off of it's charging dock and hit the buttons to unlock the bezel just to see what it would do and it worked! The bezel unlocked! Then I turned off the GPS that worked too! OMG! This is awesome! I guess just leaving it alone for a few weeks worked! I was able to go through all the settings. I was sooo excited! So I put it with the rest of my stuff.
I woke up at 6:30am, ate a bowl of oatmeal and looked at the weather. 54 currently with winds of 19mph and gusts of 26 from the NW. Fantastic! Just like last year with the wind all blowing then too. And so cold! I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt with arm warmers. Am I thankful for those arm warmers!! My shoulders were cold waiting for the start. Now as I said I had no real goal in mind. I wanted under 50 minutes and was worried about if I could do that since I have only ran 5 times in the past month. We'll see. I started to put on Phil and then I hit the button and the digits faded again. Oh shoot. Well, guess it didn't fix it after all. Back in the box it goes and on my everyday watch.
I got there late but managed to make it to the line with a few minutes before start. Chatted with someone I know. Then we were off. It rained quite a bit the night before so the gravel road that we run on for nearly a full mile was kicking up mud behind me and could feel it get into my shoes a bit.
Once we ran out of the wooded area and onto the road, heading north that's when it got to be difficult. I ran with a girl for a little while then she went in behind me and was running right behind me. I didn't want her to draft off of me so I moved over to the left. Yea, I'm mean, I know. First mile in 9 minutes even. Pretty sweet. After that the girl started taking off like crazy. Picking people off one by one.
Eventually we turned right and headed east and the winds were at our back. Yay! Mile 2 in 18:20. A little positive split but nothing too worried about so early. I lost track of the girl definitely by this time.
Turned right and headed south. Winds didn't seem AS strong as when heading north. More houses so maybe they were blocking the winds more. Mile 3 in 26 something. I spotted and smelled lilac bushes along the road. That made me smile, my favourite smell in the whole entire world! I grabbed a water cup from a volunteer and spilled it on his hand a little. I said Thank you and sorry at the same time and he just laughed it off. Then when I poured out the rest of the water and tried to put in in the garbage, I missed the sack so again I yelled out thank you and sorry! I passed about 3 girls after the water table. I know 2 of them weren't in my age group (younger) I don't know about the third.
Turned the corner again right and heading west. Couldn't even feel the winds now. Last year I was dead by this point and was walking. Today, I was feeling pretty good. I couldn't believe it. I knew that Mile 4 was coming up soon. Turned the corner again right and there it was! Mile 4 was 36:35. Wow! There's only .97 miles left and if I run that in 10 minutes then I'll get under 50 mintues and beat my time from last year! Then I started thinking, if I run a 9 minute mile then I'll have a 45 minute run that's fine with me too!
Turned into the park again and onto the gravel road. I started approaching a guy. I said to him, you don't want to get passed by a girl do you? He said ah that's OK, you're like the 10th one. But he said that he would try to keep up with me anyway. So we ran and talked. I asked questions, I guess I'm a talker. His name is James. Asked him if he had a goal. He said no, just to finish. This is his first race EVER. Not even any 5ks before. I told him this is the longest part of the race! Told him that they were many cookies at the end. He said that he couldn't even think of food right now. I told him to leave it all out on the course. I guess I was getting motivational here!
We eventually crossed the start but had to go a few more yards to the finish and that's when we kicked it in. I saw someone at the DJ station that I knew so I waved and smiled at him. I was surprised that while I was kicking in my last energy I still had my head on straight to think of that! James started to pass me, I told him to go go go, pass me! He said come on! I stayed with him then he said you go first and I crossed the finish line first. That was nice of him. I stopped my Nike+ and gave him a high five and his friend came over to him. That was when I went to see my time. My Nike+ gave me a time of 43:11!! Wooo PR! I started about 5 sec after the gun.
This race is awesome enough to tack up the tags from the bibs as soon as you finish. Then you can count all the girls in your age group before you. I counted. I was 4th. What?! Damn. Better than 6th last year but come on! I got some eats and a drink. Chatted a bit with a few people from the NITRO group. Then I went back to my car to change into warmer clothes. Stayed for the awards ceremony. Several people in our NITRO group won medals. That's awesome! Then I stayed for the raffle. I was the first name called. Woo! I got my choice of prizes and of course I chose the baseball tickets. Yay!
Then I headed to Rockford for some antiquing! At the Winnebago County Fairgrounds an antique/flea market was being held. They had booths covering all over the grounds! Even inside the barns too. It was quite huge! I got a Rainbow Brite lunchbox, Rainbow Brite 2 plastic glasses and a 1972 Kentucky Derby glass. Then I watched the Cubs game at Old Chicago and came home to watch a filly win the Preakness over all the boys! Finally, I got together with a friend to tip back a few beers and talk & catch up. I stayed up until 2am! All in all it was a good day!
By the way, I found out that I didn't set a PR by as many minutes as I thought I did. I thought in 2007 I ran in 45 minutes. Well, that's what time I was estimating finishing. I actually ran 43:19 (8:42 min/mi). That's the official time, from gun to finish. My 43:11 yesterday was my Nike+ time of when I crossed the starting line to finish. We'll see what the official time has to say. So I doubt that I made that big of a PR. I want to get down to 42 minutes but we'll see. I mean a 8:41 min/mi pace yesterday was pretty darn impressive for me! I doubt I'll be able to go 8:30 which is a 42:14 finish!
On Friday night, I took my Garmin off of it's charging dock and hit the buttons to unlock the bezel just to see what it would do and it worked! The bezel unlocked! Then I turned off the GPS that worked too! OMG! This is awesome! I guess just leaving it alone for a few weeks worked! I was able to go through all the settings. I was sooo excited! So I put it with the rest of my stuff.
I woke up at 6:30am, ate a bowl of oatmeal and looked at the weather. 54 currently with winds of 19mph and gusts of 26 from the NW. Fantastic! Just like last year with the wind all blowing then too. And so cold! I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt with arm warmers. Am I thankful for those arm warmers!! My shoulders were cold waiting for the start. Now as I said I had no real goal in mind. I wanted under 50 minutes and was worried about if I could do that since I have only ran 5 times in the past month. We'll see. I started to put on Phil and then I hit the button and the digits faded again. Oh shoot. Well, guess it didn't fix it after all. Back in the box it goes and on my everyday watch.
I got there late but managed to make it to the line with a few minutes before start. Chatted with someone I know. Then we were off. It rained quite a bit the night before so the gravel road that we run on for nearly a full mile was kicking up mud behind me and could feel it get into my shoes a bit.
Once we ran out of the wooded area and onto the road, heading north that's when it got to be difficult. I ran with a girl for a little while then she went in behind me and was running right behind me. I didn't want her to draft off of me so I moved over to the left. Yea, I'm mean, I know. First mile in 9 minutes even. Pretty sweet. After that the girl started taking off like crazy. Picking people off one by one.
Eventually we turned right and headed east and the winds were at our back. Yay! Mile 2 in 18:20. A little positive split but nothing too worried about so early. I lost track of the girl definitely by this time.
Turned right and headed south. Winds didn't seem AS strong as when heading north. More houses so maybe they were blocking the winds more. Mile 3 in 26 something. I spotted and smelled lilac bushes along the road. That made me smile, my favourite smell in the whole entire world! I grabbed a water cup from a volunteer and spilled it on his hand a little. I said Thank you and sorry at the same time and he just laughed it off. Then when I poured out the rest of the water and tried to put in in the garbage, I missed the sack so again I yelled out thank you and sorry! I passed about 3 girls after the water table. I know 2 of them weren't in my age group (younger) I don't know about the third.
Turned the corner again right and heading west. Couldn't even feel the winds now. Last year I was dead by this point and was walking. Today, I was feeling pretty good. I couldn't believe it. I knew that Mile 4 was coming up soon. Turned the corner again right and there it was! Mile 4 was 36:35. Wow! There's only .97 miles left and if I run that in 10 minutes then I'll get under 50 mintues and beat my time from last year! Then I started thinking, if I run a 9 minute mile then I'll have a 45 minute run that's fine with me too!
Turned into the park again and onto the gravel road. I started approaching a guy. I said to him, you don't want to get passed by a girl do you? He said ah that's OK, you're like the 10th one. But he said that he would try to keep up with me anyway. So we ran and talked. I asked questions, I guess I'm a talker. His name is James. Asked him if he had a goal. He said no, just to finish. This is his first race EVER. Not even any 5ks before. I told him this is the longest part of the race! Told him that they were many cookies at the end. He said that he couldn't even think of food right now. I told him to leave it all out on the course. I guess I was getting motivational here!
We eventually crossed the start but had to go a few more yards to the finish and that's when we kicked it in. I saw someone at the DJ station that I knew so I waved and smiled at him. I was surprised that while I was kicking in my last energy I still had my head on straight to think of that! James started to pass me, I told him to go go go, pass me! He said come on! I stayed with him then he said you go first and I crossed the finish line first. That was nice of him. I stopped my Nike+ and gave him a high five and his friend came over to him. That was when I went to see my time. My Nike+ gave me a time of 43:11!! Wooo PR! I started about 5 sec after the gun.
This race is awesome enough to tack up the tags from the bibs as soon as you finish. Then you can count all the girls in your age group before you. I counted. I was 4th. What?! Damn. Better than 6th last year but come on! I got some eats and a drink. Chatted a bit with a few people from the NITRO group. Then I went back to my car to change into warmer clothes. Stayed for the awards ceremony. Several people in our NITRO group won medals. That's awesome! Then I stayed for the raffle. I was the first name called. Woo! I got my choice of prizes and of course I chose the baseball tickets. Yay!
Then I headed to Rockford for some antiquing! At the Winnebago County Fairgrounds an antique/flea market was being held. They had booths covering all over the grounds! Even inside the barns too. It was quite huge! I got a Rainbow Brite lunchbox, Rainbow Brite 2 plastic glasses and a 1972 Kentucky Derby glass. Then I watched the Cubs game at Old Chicago and came home to watch a filly win the Preakness over all the boys! Finally, I got together with a friend to tip back a few beers and talk & catch up. I stayed up until 2am! All in all it was a good day!
By the way, I found out that I didn't set a PR by as many minutes as I thought I did. I thought in 2007 I ran in 45 minutes. Well, that's what time I was estimating finishing. I actually ran 43:19 (8:42 min/mi). That's the official time, from gun to finish. My 43:11 yesterday was my Nike+ time of when I crossed the starting line to finish. We'll see what the official time has to say. So I doubt that I made that big of a PR. I want to get down to 42 minutes but we'll see. I mean a 8:41 min/mi pace yesterday was pretty darn impressive for me! I doubt I'll be able to go 8:30 which is a 42:14 finish!
