I.am.AWESOME!!

After a fitful night's sleep, I woke up around 730 today, burned 2 pieces of toast, had a SMALL cup of coffee ( I know.....bad idea, but I needed it to wake me up), a non-burned toast and a banana and I hit the road for my 1st race ever - the Washington DC St. Patrick's Day 8K.

As I have blogged earlier, my training runs have usually been on the TM, with the exception of this past TWR - which were 3 mile loops outside. On the TM I was averaging 10:40s or something like that and outside, not counting traffic lights under 60s, I was running 11s. I have run 5 and 6 miles on the TM before. I forget what the 5 mi time was ( it's written down at the gym) but I know my 6 miler was about 70min. With all of the reading I have been doing about how the TM and the road are vastly different, I was hoping to finish the 8K in under 60m ( at the most) and ideally in 55 ( hence the 11min mi...I know 8K is just under 5mi, but I was running on the outside of the loop and the course is measured running inside, so I probably ran more than 5mi).

Fast foward to race day ...I get off metro at Federal Triangle and I can hear bagpipes and I instantly get a little rush of adrenaline. Awesome. Then I turn the corner and see all of these people running and stretching and warming up. Also awesome. I hit the WC a few times ( thanks mostly to my coffee and bottle of Propel I drank on the way to the race and lined up with the 12s, thinking I would run mile 1 slow, and adjust after I see how my pace is. We take off, things are going well. The only thing I hated about this course was the stupid hairpin turns. I would rather run out and back without sidetracking down a tiny street for 2 blocks only to turn around and get back on the main drag. Don't even get me started about the cocktease one 0.1 mi from the finish line, which I am pretty sure WAS NOT ON THE MAP! I digress...

We hit mile 1 and I look at my watch...9:10!?!?!? Shit! I am feeling good at this point but I slow waaayyyyy down to conserve energy. I am very nervous at this point b/c I have not trained OUTSIDE for a 5 mile run yet. Good thing to note though - I can probably run a little faster on my 3 milers. At mile 2 looked at my watch , 21:40. (So 12:30) That is more like it. Mile 3 was annoying and under a sketchy bridge with a lot of wind. I ran that one by 33:08 (11:22). That's pretty much where the straight part of the course ended. Lots of turns, lots of weaving in and out, some walking and finally someone says we are at mile 4 and my watch says 43:00 (9:58!?!? wtf that can't be right because I WALKED a few times this mile..whatever). Sweet! I have 12 minutes to come in under my 55 min goal!! We turn a corner and I can see balloons in the distance. I started running fast and then I saw the friggin left hand turn. I wish I had seen that earlier b/c I wouldn't have kicked up my pace so much. To top it all off, I can't see how deep said left hairpin turn is. It could be 10 feet, it could be 0.4 mi. I am a horrible distance judger! So I maintain pace and then it started catching up to me just as I turn left. I struggle through the left hand turn, get stuck in a kind of slow mob of peeps, turn left back onto Penn and turn up the heat. I am not even looking at my watch at this point b/c I just want this to be OVERRRRR. So I sprint across the orange mat (now I am scared that ChampionChip did not pick up my start or finish time..I seriously need to get a life and stop worrying). I see the race clock says 58:07. My watch says 55:21. Sooooo definitely under my 60 min mark .. hooray!!!! And slightly over my 11min/mile goal of 55 min. Dagger. Oh well. I am also secretly excited b/c I found out one of my friends ran this race last year and I think she finished in like 70 mins or something. Haha I win!

Lessons learned : 1)You are running faster than you think you are at the start of the race even though a: you are in a pack that you think looks sloooowwww. b: you can breathe. 2) You can sneak your IPod to this race!!! Everyone else did! This was my 1st run ever without one. Could have helped a little!!

All in all, an awesome morning. I woke up, ate breakfast (twice) and a ran an effing race in good time for me, before any of my friends even thought about waking up with their silly hangovers from yesterday's beerfest (where I was chugging club + lime!). I feel like running some more! Why do I always get the runners high about 15 mins after I stop running!?!?