Freeze Your Thorns Off 5K

Ever so anxious to get my first race of the new year in the books, without hesitation I signed on the dotted line for Adam's "Freeze our Thorns Off 5K" virtual race - and today was THE day!

I put it off.  All day. 

But I had reasons.

Like a devoted, loyal friend I am, I told Tara I'd meet her at the gym at oh eight hundred this morning for weight lifting class.  First, I had to take Ryan to meet the track team as they headed up yet another insanely steep mountain, so I got to get up at crack-of-dawn o'clock to get him there and then the PLAN was to run the 5K after drop-off.  Didn't happen.  Spent too long in the parking lot waiting for his group to show up so not enough time to squish the run in, though the thought did occur to me that maybe I'd run faster if I had less time to run it, but my flannel sheets for another 20 minutes were more inviting. 

Get to weight lifting class, smack on the 8 o'clock dot for an hour (bailed on the stretching section, why the heck would I want to stretch my overly-tight hamstrings and glutes for anyway??), got home in time to take Brendan up to school (this makes 2 trips to the school all before 10a.m. on a Saturday), the band was going out to beg solicit businesses for donations to an upcoming band silent auction.  By the time I got home from that, all I had time to do was shower before I HAD to go meet a friend for lunch. 

But it wasn't just any old friend, this was my buddy, Tommy O ("tosuperstar" for you few RW souls out there who read my blog) who I have had the pleasure of training for many months (aka: Bubble Boy (because I put him in a bubble before Chicago Marathon so he wouldn't get sick, and Super Glue Boy because he had all sorts of leg problems prior to his recent 1/2 in New Orleans and I was trying to hold him together in one piece for the race).  He lives in Nebraska; his daughter had an audition here in Denver to a performing arts college out east, so they made a very quick, less than 24-hour, trip to my neck of the woods and since I've never met him before, I couldn't run the 5K after wt class, I had to meet Tom before they headed back home.  Tommy, his beautiful daughter, and I all met at a really cute little sandwich shop called Pajama Baking Co and we chatted for well over an hour, and had so much fun (I think I could sit there and talk to Tom for days; he's been running even longer than I have, we both lived in Alabama, and just have a lot in common to chat about).

Thanks, Tom!

I tried to eat a light lunch so as not to upset my stomach for the pending 5K, but I was famished from driving my kids all over creation and that kick-my-ass weight class, so I devoured half my chicken sandwich and to top that off, Tom gave me some chocolate covered strawberries, which I inhaled half of before I even walked in my front door.

Soooooooo, I got home from my awesome lunch and the daughter was home and I hadn't seen her in a few days so had to catch up with her, and major sidetrackness happened and before I knew it, I had a splitting headache and I had to take a nap.  Now it's 5:30 and my diet's all out of whack to run (I have no problems running in the evenings, I do it all the time, but I need to be pretty meticulous what I eat, and when, before) so I ate some noodles, let them digest and FINALLY, it's time to race.

Start time: 7:33p.m.

Location: Why, same locale as the ever-so-popular "runwithjill Turkey Trot 5K" - my basement treadmill (No eyerolling.  Me and my treadmill are pretty intimate - and I got to watch a good half hour of Pretty Woman to distract me, who cares if I've seen it 58 thousand times in my life, I still love it :) ).

Strategy: Don't suck. But second thought, maybe suck just a little because 1) the piriformis decided it has been neglected for a few weeks so wanted to let me know it has joined heel pain's party and 2) I have a long run for Sunday and my top priority right now is to see if the heel will let me build some long run miles.  I'm not exactly in top running shape right now so running a 5K before a long run could potentially kill the long run. 

Footwear: My brand spanking new Brooks Launch (thanks, Meg - love 'em!)

Find the right upbeat music on the iPod, turn it up 10 octaves louder than considered safe, and I'm off.  I just set the pace to whatever feels good at the time, trying not to kill myself the first mile, which I notoriously famous for.

I don't know what each mile pace was, it's really not conducive to wear my Garmin while on my treadmill (ok ok, yes, I HAVE done it before.  Hush!) but I did pick up the pace every few laps and finished the last 800 around 7:30.  The race photographer managed to capture that last speedy lap:

Would you look at that SPEED!?!?!  Wow!   Best race pic of me EVER!

Finish Line Time:  24:03 (7:46 pace)

Not my fastest, but I didn't overly push it AND I had no heel issues AND no glute pain.  Double yay.  Now, let's see if I can run tomorrow!

Thanks, Adam, I had a blast.  Do I get a prize for latest of the day run?  More importantly, I WANT one of those finisher medals, those things ROCK!!