5k benefit for Emmanuel school

So I don't even remember the name of this race, which is CRAZY, cause I won it.

You read that right.

I was overall top female... WTH??

OK, there were a lot of beginners there and the usual fast people were obviously not there. I decided to take this race more seriously and ran a real warm up. I started out in the direction of the one mile fun run. A friend's 5 year old, Patrick, was running the one mile. His grandfather was far behind him and his older brother predictably dumped him. I decided Patrick would be a good running buddy so I joined the one mile fun run. He actually was perfect- we'd sprint at a 7 minute per mile pace, and then walk at a 22 minute pace (he also caught a ride on a golf cart for the one big hill- smart kid!) It was a really good warm up- note to self: bring Patrick to every race!

The 5k started. All I really wanted to do was get past the clump of little kids who always start in front of me. I pushed hard and saw I was at a 7:30 pace, which was ridiculous. I held on though because those little kids are fast little sprinters and I couldn't see them (or hear them because I was listening to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on some sort of horrible loop). At about 1.5 miles I caught a teenaged girl- I told her we were halfway there, and she stopped pretty much instantaneously. So then I felt like crap- I thought I was encouraging her, not taking away her will to live! Regardless, I was pretty certain I was now the first girl, so you know, to heck with her- she's young, they'll be other races... I passed a water stop- a small dog tried to get me. Hello, who brings an unleashed dog to a water stop? Oh well. And now I'm going uphill. It's feeling hard, but not impossible. Now my Garmin may be hurting my pace- I see I'm still in the 7:30s. I felt like I could go faster, but I was worried I'd literally fall down. Hmmm... oh, and I'd never moved that fast, so my actual coordination felt off, as in I wasn't sure I was swinging my arms fast enough. I distracted myself by listening to yet another round of "Don't Stop Me Now." It was making me absolutely crazy, but it worked that far and I couldn't possible jinx myself by changing it.

Finally, the finish. A guy in a tri shirt passes me with a "good race" comment. It doesn't bother me one bit because he was young and fit and he should have been in front of me way before then. I push through, hearing "first girl." Crazy. My time was 23:09. My long standing 5k PR was 24:42 so I'm pretty surprised.

I picked up my medal and went on home trying to figure out when I became a "real" runner. And then I entered my 5k results in the McMillan Running Calculator, and see a prediction for around 3:40 for a full marathon. I know it's probably optimistic and reflects proper marathon training, but I need a 3:50 to qualify for the Boston marathon... oh, the torment. Curse you, Boston dream!