My first race. ever. The volunteers were very friendly.
Looked very well organized to my inexperienced eyes too.
I watched the 30K start. Major shuffle with so many runners.
Finally it was the 5K time. at the gun, i was bewildered.
there was no starting line!!! turns out they only use a chip
starting mat for the 30K. so i ran slowly the first few
blocks or so. in the end it didn't matter because i think i
ran the first 1K a little too fast. i had gloves on and
pushing the little button on my watch just didn't work
right. so i ran kinda what felt like a bit faster than
training pace. i was determined to finsh without having to
walk. i slowed down slightly for the middle portions .
this race had a real mix of people. plenty were walking at
the 1 K mark. some were doing run/walk. congrats to all that
gave it their best.
after the turn-around (at the 3.5K mark) i picked up the
speed again because i knew i was going to finish. i had
planned to blast up the slight hill, but i thought better of
it when the time actually arrived. on the last 1/2 K i tried
to move up. there were lots of people just ahead of me. so i
knew i could make up some positions easy. must have passed
about 10 people (including 1 young lady). one smart-aleck
guy that i passed, passed me back.
by then my legs were getting shaky so i let him go.
Finished. whew. had planned for 27 min. came in a bit
faster. could have cut maybe a half-minute off if i'd had my
watch working.
Got some cold pizza, a yogurt and a trail mix bar at the
convention centre as a goodie. concluded with a starbuck's
coffee on the way home and the day was done.
like any other first-timer, i learned a lot this race. next
one i'll be better prepared. i didn't eat anything before
the race because i didn't want a "problem" on the course.
i'm going to add a small snack prior to some of my training
runs to see what i can handle. lotsa fun. ...thehick