LMJS Couples Relay

Woke up to a cold cold cold day, but at least it wasn't raining.  In fact the sun was out and it was beautiful.  Pre-race was easy, I got our numbers, we got our swag bag and basically just waited for the race to start.  There were quite a few sponsors at the race and they were giving away a lot of free stuff, so that was nice.

We lined up right on time and after a really brief explanation of the race route (that boiled down to "Keep the lake on your right" we were off.

I started as I usually do - in the back.  I know I'm slow and rather then frustrate myself I just start at the back and go at my pace -- and that's what I did, went at my own pace - even though it was frustrating to be passed and watch everyone pull away from me.

Of course, going at my pace has it's advantages because eventually I started catching up to people and passing them.

And so I went

And so I started to get tired.  My lack of training caught up to me and I started to play the, just to the next sign, make it around that corner, just to the next intersection game. I didn't have my watch with me so I didn't know how many miles I had gone, but I could look across the lake and see the finish line and that was giving me hope, keeping me going.

Then I turned a corner and realized that there was a major loop ahead of me, and I wasn't as close to the end of the race as I thought I was -- suddenly, I was crushed, I couldn't run another step.  So I switched to a walk/run, made it around the loop and then ran the last leg and tagged my husband.

The best part of the race was coming down the finish line, and seeing my husband, standing there smiling and waiting for me to tag him.  He gave me a big kiss and he was off to run his race.

I got some water and some food and waited for my husband to come him.  He did (in 31 minutes) and as a team we did a 6K in 1:11:44.49 - we came in 148 out of 152.

We weren't last, and I wasn't the slowest person out there - I'm good with that.

A few things I learned from this race:

1 - I run better with a watch.  It helps me to keep track of how much I have left to go and how much I need to leave in the tank.

2 - Training is important (ok - I knew this already)  I figured out later that the place where I 'died' was at about the 2.5 mile mark, and that was about where I had gotten to in my training.

ah well, live and learn and on to the next race.

As for this one - I did 5 K in 40:21 for a 12:36 Pace (and that was with some walking)  I'm pretty proud of that!