The Pumpkin 5K race report

Last week I decided to jump into this little 5K in Yarmouth. The 3rd Annual Pumpkin 5K. Why not? It's kind of fun to bust out a 5K now and then. Besides, my last few 5Ks have been slower than I'd like, 21:30ish. Oh, remember the days of always clocking a 20 something, and then the few 19 somethings I have to my credit. Anyway, races have a way of motivating me. If I do poorly, then I want to train harder to get better. If I do well, then I want to train harder to get better ... yeah, funny how that works. I also believe that I shouldn't go too long between races because I need to be reminded how it feels to be outside my comfort zone.

5K start. There were a lot of people dressed up but I didn't. I did wear an orange shirt trying to be in the spirit of Halloween. Runners ready ... go. We're off. I tried not to go out too hard. I counted the women in front of me, 3. Two of them I know I cannot beat so kept my eye on the third, which wasn't hard since she was wearing these black tights with bright orange bats on them! I settled into my pace and felt good. I don't know what that was because I decided not to look at my watch and just run by feel. I kept getting closer and closer to the black tight lady and finally passed her about a mile in. Then I passed a guy on the next uphill. He passed me back once we were back on the flat. I kept my eye on him and I caught him again around two miles in. We ran side be side for awhile, but I didn't like it. I surged just a little and he came with me. Ugh. Why do men hate being passed by women? I decided right then that this guy wasn't going to beat me. I took the inside on the next turn and we had another uphill. I kept pushing up the hill and pretty soon he fell off. Yup. We turned into the school and had to run around to the back and onto the track for one lap. I was actually feeling good, pushing hard, but feeling good. I hit the track and picked it up as best I could. Then, the one thing you hope never happens happened ... about 150 m from the finish some chick comes flying past me. Seriously?? I tried to go with her but she was really moving! I give her credit, that was a hell of a kick. She beat me by 2 seconds for the third place spot, putting me in forth.

Final results:
21:10, 4th female, first in age group, 17th overall.

I'll take that. I smiled at the time and thought yup, I'll be posting 20 somethings again soon!

Did a cool down, collected a freshly baked pumpkin pie for winning my age group, and headed home. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. The pie is still sitting on my counter. I'm wondering how long before I cave and dig in ...