Well I added a new race distance for me. I have done a 7K, 10K and 11K but
never an 8K. Eric said we need to find a 9K now. Anyways, this past weekend we
completed the Irish Run 8K (basically 5 miles). This was the first year of the
run so there wasn’t much swag. We got a nice long sleeve shirt and plain old
bib. Of course there was also free beer but no medal. I like my hardware!
The Start
It was a small race, only 196 8K runners and 145 5K runners so I didn’t
have the usually crowd to push me like the bigger races which could be part of
the reason my splits were terrible. We started running up an overpass. Not
cool! But immediately we got to run downhill so that was good. My pace was
really fast that first mile at 10:43. I haven’t run that fast in a while. But
the rest of the race was crap. Eric was irritated with me because I slowed down
“too much.” He killed me in that first mile. I wasn’t happy with him for most
of this run. At one point I told he we shouldn’t run together anymore. Yes I
want to get faster Eric, but I don’t want try it in a race at a distance I
haven’t done before and I don’t want to do it on the first mile of a longer
race. I want to finish the race standing up. We can work on speed later on
training runs when it doesn’t matter if you kill me the first couple
miles. But I had a race to finish. ARGH!
The Middle
It was an out and back course (I hate!) so the view wasn’t that
exciting. The race was also down a straight
street which is even more boring as there is no were curves. You can see in a
distance where the turnaround is and you just run towards that. I didn’t have
any issues along the way (like wanting to turn around at the 5K turn). I kept
going with a smile. We actually got to
run around a block so that was exciting. I like that much better than a
turnaround (even if the block was on cobblestone, ick!) You don’t lose too much
momentum like you do on a regular turnaround. I told Eric at the 2.5 mile mark that
I wanted to finish in 57 minutes.
The End
Like I said this was a small race and it was very lonely after the 5K
turnaround point. Eric kept wanting to catch people ahead of us that I knew I
couldn’t do but because they were really far ahead of us. I know I shouldn’t
say words like can’t or couldn’t but I’m a realist, I know what I can and can’t
do and catching somebody that is running faster than me and is over a half a
mile in front of me is not going to happen. I’m not a sprinter! Surprisingly
one of the people started walking. Finally I could pass somebody. But he played
the game of “can’t let the fat girl pass
me” and would take off running faster as soon as I caught up to him. It
pissed me off. But I kept going and eventually I passed him and beat him but 5
seconds (take that skinny, 26 year old Alex from Minneapolis!) What is pathetic
(for him) is my last mile was the slowest and that is the mile I passed him! I
also finished at exactly 57 minutes. I even beat Eric by 1 second. Take that
Eric! Ha!
I think Eric’s competitiveness has finally rubbed off on me. Watch out Eric, don’t piss me off because I
might just run faster than you…I know that isn’t going to really happen but one
can dream!
Photos, Splits and a Map
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