Saturday, October 24, 2009

Great Pumpkin Race Recap

My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning and I REALLY didn't want to get up. I stretched my legs in bed for a few minutes, and then the next thing I knew the alarm was going off again. I fell back asleep! Thank goodness Tim set his alarm clock also. He didn't want to get up at 4:30, so he set his for 5:00. If he hadn't done that we would have probably slept right through the race.

We got ready and drove the 45 minutes or so to where the race was located. We ended up getting there way earlier than we needed to. It was freezing cold and barely light outside. We picked up our race packs and headed back to the car to warm up before the race started. When it got close to starting time we jogged up and down the road to get the blood flowing and posed for a picture by the Spinners Park sign. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone to take our picture together so this is the best we could do.

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This was both mine and Tim's first 8Ks. We were both really excited and nervous. I knew I could run the distance (5 miles), I just didn't know if I could do it in a decent time. Its funny how my thought process has changed over the last couple of months. When I ran my first 5K in September my goal was just to finish, now I want to beat my personal times. My personal goal that I set for myself before going into the race today was to try my very best to maintain a 8 minute mile pace.

Just before the race started we met up with a few friends that we know from Spin Class at the Y. It was nice to see familiar faces.

The gun went off without any warning and caught me off guard. The race route took us through downtown Prattville. There was one monster hill right where the 8K split off from the 5K, but for the most part the course was nice and flat. My only complaint about the course was that there were a few spots where the directions weren't very well marked, and I kept getting confused. At one point there was only one guy I could see infront of me and no one behind me. I started to wonder if I was still running the right direction, and just then the guy infront of me stopped and started stretching his legs on the curb. I pulled out my earphones and asked him if we were going the right way, he didn't know either. Thankfully we were.

I came across the finish line and made a conscious effort to try to notice the time on the clock. As best as I could tell it said 40:54 or something close. Of course I forgot to stop my Garmin again, so my information is a little off from the official race results (as usual), but here's what I got:

Distance - 5.17 miles (Not sure where the extra distance came from.)

Mile 1 - 7:55
Mile 2 - 7:54
Mile 3 - 8:04
Mile 4 - 7:58
Mile 5 - 7:56

After the race Tim and I walked around the Arts and Crafts Show and looked around until the Awards Ceremony started. It was a really good thing that we didn't bring any cash with us because there were Funnel Cakes, Gyros, Kabobs, Roasted Corn on The Cob, Boiled Peanuts and every other treat you can imagine being sold. Normally we don't stay for the awards ceremony but for some reason I thought there was a possibility that I might win an award today. I doubted I would, but I secretly hoped so.

Turns out I did win an award, I placed 2nd in my age division! Yay for my first award!

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I've been needing some new running shoes for quite a while now. I bought a pair online a couple weeks ago and ran once in them and just really felt like they weren't for me, so I sent them back. Unfortunately we don't have a running store in my city, but I have heard that McClendon Sports has a very knowledgable staff when it comes to running shoes. I decided to treat myself and go check it out today.

I was very impressed with the woman who was helping me. She looked at my feet, asked me a few questions and brought out 2 pairs of shoes for me to try. I tried them on, she felt on my feet and watched me run across the store and back. The first pair I tried was Brooks Ghost 2, I loved them! My current shoes are Brooks and I have always loved them also, but they run small and I bought a 1/2 size smaller than I should have. The 2nd pair I tried on were Mizuno's. They were bright orange and I really loved the color and the way they looked. I tried them on and they felt weird, but I thought maybe I could make do since I liked the way they looked so much. I ran halfway across the store and knew I couldn't buy them. They felt horrible on my feet.

They aren't the prettiest thing in the world, but meet my new running partners:

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Sundays are going to be my long run days with my new training program that I started, and tomorrow I'm scheduled to run 6 miles. I can't wait to break these babies in!

2 comments:

  1. Wow, what a wonderful accomplishment~ And Congrats on your award~ Like the shoes, too! :)

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  2. Damn, girl!! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! What a terrific time and congrats on the award! Woo Hoo!!

    As far as running shoes go, I've realized a while ago that I no longer can buy the "cute" ones - they never work out for me. Hell, they're going to get dirty anyway, right? My shoe of choice are Asics kayano's...they've been wonderful. My husband does well with Nike. It's hard to find a shoe that works sometimes. When you do, STOCK UP!!

    Again, amazing times on the race - I'm so proud of you!

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