Anyway, you may also think hotter'n hell describes these two hot chicks...
Yes, I realize we are totally hot but please let me get onto the title!
You see, last week I mentioned my girl, Kelsey asked me late one night via text to run a 5k with her over the weekend. I laughed about it to the hubby in bed that night and said how unprepared I felt or something along the lines of spending $$ on racing/running. But he was supportive, as always, and told me to do it. So, I did. And Kelsey was kind enough to come by my work on Friday to pick up my $ and registration form to drop off and pick up my race packet. She rocks, in case I haven't mentioned that before. I was stoked to run the Hotter'n Hell 5k with her.
This was a great race because the $$ went to the American Cancer Society. My dad is recovering (I guess is the current word) from his mission with colorectal cancer since last year so I was glad the money was going to such a great charitable cause.
Earlier in the week I text Kelsey (half joking) that we should totally break 30 or at least get close to 31 for this 5k. She thought that was a great plan or at least that is what her text said. I had only ever ran a sub 30 5k doing speedwork on a treadmill. I had not ran an under 30 5k outside with hundreds of people on a hilly (sorta) running trail in the summer time.
We got to the race early enough to take a little warmup trot, potty break and chit chat with a friend or two. After snapping a few pictures we headed to our spot in the start line. We thought maybe we had lined up too close to the start but once we got to moving it seemed like we were ok. The race was on a local greenway and we knew it would be a little tight.
At one point I got frustrated by a little ol' granny runner because she pretty much elbowed me trying to get past me. Fine, I was running about a 9 minute mile at the time which seemed pretty good for me. Then granny passed. Ugh. Whatever, I let her go. From there my strategy was to just pick off people and run. It seemed to work. This was the first race I ran without music which I ended up not even missing. I was able to listen to my breathing and all the people around me.
Just before mile 1 Kelsey told me to go on that she needed to scale it back a bit. I debated on just staying with her but I was in my groove and had a good pace going so I went. She wasn't too far behind me and when I made the loop to head back (the course was an out and back) I met up with her and we high fived each other. She looked to be doing ok and that made me feel ok.
I kept running, looking at my Garmin once in a while to see my pace and for the most part it looked like I was heading into the end of the race at making my goal. Around mile 2.6 though I felt the need to scale back to closer to a 10 min/mile so at the bottom of a slight uphill I slowed down (I'm kicking myself for that now, but oh well). Then once I got to the top of the hill this one lady was in front of me and she had appeared to slow down. My goal then was to keep pushing past her. So, I did that.
At one point there was an older man and his daughter in front of me. He was talking SO flippin' loud and that became annoying to me, but they were in a spot on the trail that it made it tough to pass them. I finally broke my stride and just went for it. I just felt like being behind his voice made me slower than I wanted, weird I know.
I hit the 3 mile mark and it was on. I was not going to make my under 30 goal but I could get close to 31 minutes. SO I pushed it on the uphill to the finish and made it in 31:05 (chip time). I was thrilled. This was a 5k PR for me and I was happy for that. This was also the first 5k race I ran the entire thing and without music!
Once I crossed the finish line and had my chip cut off I went back to look for Kelsey. She was not too far behind me and I trotted with her back up the hill to the finish. She seemed to be in a bit of pain so I met her at the end of the finish line chute where she just sat down. A medic came over to check on her and we let him know she was chilled. I ran to get water while he got her a blanket. At this point I felt like a total tool for taking off so fast and not staying with her. I didn't want her to struggle or feel bad. :( Horrible running friend, I am.
After a few bottles of water and a few minutes on the ground my awesome friend was back to feeling fine! We got up and walked around and even chatted with a few people a bit. We hung around to make sure we didn't win any awesome awards but apparently they don't give one out to the hottest running babes so we split and headed to Einstein Bros for FREE bagels!
Our race packets included a coupon for one FREE Naked bagel. Um, yes please!!! I chose a cranberry bagel and had them toast it and add light cream cheese. I also got a coffee. It was heaven in a little black basket after a great race.
After bagels, Kelsey took me back to my car which I was glad to find still parked at the local Shoney's and I headed home. It was a great day and I was glad she asked me to run with her. So, Kelsey if you are reading this.. I hope you are feeling better and glad you didn't want to kill me! I can't wait to run with you again! Oh and thanks for letting me steal the pics. ;)
So, how was your weekend? Did you race? Were you awesome like us two hot chics and get a PR??
3 comments: