chapter 2 page 248 - TR 84 Race recap

Today, "C" and I ran our first race together since the St. Petersburg Women's Half Marathon before Thanksgiving and . . . it was our first 5K since mid September (we have done other distances). We ran the Forester Freeze 5K - a familiar course to "C" as it was nearly identical to her Turkey Trot 5K route. It was primarily through a university campus which was very nice; however, there was about a mile that was out in the country (boring). This was also the hilliest course I've ever run. We do live in NE IN so hills are realitive, but it makes me thankful I do not live in some of the places you all do - yikes, I could never make it. There was no water stations along the route which was okay, but I could have benefited from an oxygen station especially after the 1000 foot assent over an 1/8 of a mile (just kidding - it was a mere undulation to most of you awesome runners). We used the 2:2 except we ran the first 6 minutes. "C" got an AWESOME garmin for Christmas and I'm in LOVE with it! It beeped at each mile, told us our pace, total mileage and total time. Again, all you awesome runners have been using them for years, but this was our first run - LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! This was a fundraiser for a golf team and as such was a pretty minimalist race (no bibs, no water stations except at the end, "post race refreshments" as advertised was only orange slices in a bowl that everyone reached into - no thank you).

GREAT NEWS - "C" won 2nd in her age group (there were about 10 people in her 50-59 age group). Way to go "C". Speaking of a minimalist race . . . her prize was a little bag of caramel corn. We finished in 43:58 (or so - no clock, no timer, no official anything, but that's what both of our watches said). We got 54th and 55th place respectively and were maybe 15th from last (woo hoo!). Our final time was a little disappointing, but considering the hills, the temperature, the silghtly icy road, the roads that were open to a tremendous amount of traffic all moving too fast), I'd say we did alright especially for not having trained (well, "C" had trained more than I have).
I opted to wear the Pearl Izumi shoes to see if that made any difference on my knee. Great news - my knee only hurt going uphill (but so did everything else) and on one step when we were going down hill and transitioned from a run to a walk - the force of that speed shift was on my right leg (and thus my right knee). Mostly it didn't hurt very much (some pain, but nothing like the other 3 runs). As the day went on, it began hurting more and more - but, I do think there is some improvement (not sure if it was the shoe change or just some healing).