H20 5K - Playing catch up!

  I knew I was behind on race posts, but didn't realize I had TWO to catch up on before this weekend's race.  This review is of the City of Garland's H20 5K, which is a part of a huge health and fitness fair they put on.  I had been working on my speed over the summer and I told my friend Shama to find us a small 5K where I could go and try to win an age group award.  I have been running for 10 years and I have NEVER won any awards for my time, so I was really excited about trying for this one.  Fast forward about a month and by the time the 5K was here, I'd missed some mileage and hadn't been able to focus on my speed as much, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  I tried just just relax about it and enjoy myself.  That morning it was really humid, which I know Shama hates, so I decided to just talk her up because I knew she would be talking herself out of it.  We went out for a couple of warm up miles and realized there were going to be a couple of large hills on this course - one of which was right at the end, in that last corner before the finish line.  I could see Shama getting nervous about it, so I just tried to talk her up and keep her focused to take my mind off of my silly little goals.  I will say that the warm up miles we clocked were pretty fast and I felt good, so I was getting hopeful again that maybe I could keep that pace for at least 3 miles.

   We all line up at the start and this race was pretty small.  Shama and I had been looking around and trying to guess people's ages so we could keep our eyes on the competition, but we were really just cracking ourselves up acting like stalkers. This was the first time that I ever purposefully lined myself up close to the front, so I was really starting to get nervous.  Shama was going for a PR that was definitely a little faster than me, so she was right on the line.  We take off and I was keeping a really good pace, but I wasn't sure exactly how good until I hit the first mile and my running app clocked me at 8:56.  Sub-9 is RARE for me.  I felt great, so I thought "Well I'm just going to do this until I can't, it's only 3 miles, right?"  There were a couple of women that I went back and forth with and I wasn't sure if they were in my age group, so I just tried to stay in front of as many of them as I could.  We started coming up on the turn around and I saw Shama coming back toward me.  I yelled at her that she looked great and to keep it up and then decided to try and just keep her in my eyeline the rest of the race.  We hit mile 2 at the top of the first hill and I had done about 9:04 on that one, so at 2 miles, I was right at 18 minutes, which was incredible.  I figured at that point that even if I didn't get age group, I was going to set a hell of a PR for the 5K.  We were coming around the corner and I knew we were coming up on the last big hill.  I also knew that Shama was about 30 seconds ahead of me and right on track for the PR that she wanted.  Right as I turned the corner, I saw her halfway up that hill and she had started to walk a little - I promptly yelled "NO SHAMA!  KEEP RUNNING!  YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!"  Ha ha!  She jumped, looked back and started running.  The guy next to me jumped and started running.  I probably sounded like a crazy person.  We came up on that last stretch and I passed a couple of women I had been battling and turned in an 8:40 for my last mile, which is my fastest mile in at least 4 years.  I saw Shama cross and I knew she hit her PR.  Then I crossed at 27:30, which is a full 2 minutes faster than my 5K PR, which I set back in 2009, I think - PRE Gage.  I was SO excited about those splits and I was so excited that Shama hit her goal.  It was also awesome that I felt great!  It was hard, but completely manageable for that distance.  

  We still weren't sure if we would hit age group, they only did top 2 in each and there were some wild cards that had finished before us.  The woman I passed right at the end came in right behind me and I later found out that she WAS in my age group, so I'm glad I didn't let up on that last mile.  We walked around for a while until the awards and then got settled in our seats.  It was fun to see everyone getting their awards, I've never really paid attention to that portion of a race.  It was especially cool because you'd see familiar faces from the race that passed you or you passed and everyone was like, "Oh yeah, I was chasing you!"  We were both trying to be cool, but Shama and I were both so nervous.  They get to hers first and of course she won in her age group!!  I was so excited and I took some pictures.  We go sit back down and my age group was next.  They call out 2nd place and then MY NAME!  I won't even lie, I cried a little.  Silliest thing, I know, but it was so exciting!

  I got up there and I squealed, "I NEVER win anything!" and the woman said that it meant I needed to come back next year.  Oh I WILL.  Overall I will say that this little 5K is a lot of fun.  I don't want to hype it up too much because I need everyone to stay home so I can win again next year.  Seriously though. the health expo was fun, it was really well organized, the race swag was ridiculously generous and the race was SO cheap.  The course was exactly 3.1 and just challenging enough to feel like a REAL PR.  We had a blast!  I will be following Shama around to more small races so I can rack up a few more awards.  Luckily she'll let me tag along since we aren't in the same age group.  

Next up: Tough Mudder