Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hog Trot 5K - Race Recap

Wasn't sure how this race was going to go.  I did run 11.11 miles yesterday.  When I went out on my warm up pace, I knew straight up that my legs were toast.  I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to be able to run a decent time on this race.

I meet up with Karly.  It was her second race.  She had been dealing with an ankle injury, so we weren't sure how she would fair.  Well, she did great.  She set a new PR too!  Yay Karly!

The race went off on time and I set out to push my way through my sore legs.  I was able to keep a consistent pace throughout this entire race.  And to my amazement, I was able to keep that pace under an 8-min mile.  The second half of this race is a steady incline to just about the 2.8 or 2.9 mile point.  There was a time or two that I caught my pace slowing down to just over 8/m pace.  That steady uphill was killing my sore legs.  I put my head down and pushed harder.  I was able to get my pace back under the 8/m pace.  Once I made the last turn towards the finish, all I wanted to do get the best time I could.  When I saw the clock at the finish, I knew I couldn't break 24, but I knew I could bread 24.30.  As usual, I sprinted to the finish line finishing at 24.24.  I was very pleased with my time considering my very tired legs.

But here's the kicker.  When the results started to post, I checked to see what my official time was.  My time was 24.24 like I said, but my division place was 7th.  7th out of 9.  I was in shock!  7th?  How the hell?  I finished 42 out of 269. Not bad right?  This was the strangest race I have ever run as far as age group placement.  There were some fast older runners out there.  The top 4 AG placers ran under 22:30!  That's amazing to say the least!

While I was definitely disappointed that I didn't place, I am happy with my time.  Like they say, you can't place in all of them.

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