Racing for Turkeys No Garmins Allowed?!

I ran a low key 5k race over the weekend.  The premise of the race was to see how accurate you could guess your 5k time.  The  runners with the closest guesses to their actual time got to bring home the turkeys.


The race was held at the Old Silver Bowl Park.  This is located behind the Sam Boyd UNLV Football stadium and isn't too far from where I live.  The race didn't get started until 8am. That's kind of a late start for me, but it gave me time to eat breakfast and play with my kids for a little bit before the run.

For the race we were not allowed to wear any watches, Garmins, or wear any headphones.  Also the finish clock wouldn't be on display. 

I guessed that I would be able to run 21:30 for the 5k. I lined up near the front (it was a pretty small race).   I started out pretty quickly for the first 800 meters and then I eased off the pace a little bit.  I didn't feel like I was running all out but, the pace did feel pretty hard. 

When we got to the turn around point I realized that I was the first female overall.  My friend Toshie was also running that day.  She is a fast 5k runner, however she ran the Rock n Roll Marathon the week before so I knew she was still in recovery mode.

After the turn around point the runners had spread out and I think I may have eased off the pace because no one was around me.

I got picked off by two male runners with about a half mile to go.  I tried to finish strong and stay with them but, they had faster finishing kicks than I did.

After the race we had to wait for the official results and then the turkeys were awarded.


Me waiting with Toshie for the results.

There was a slight mix up with the race results and they had initially written my finish time down wrong.


Not very happy to receive a can of green beans.

 

My official time was 21:38.  I was only eight seconds off of my original guess.  After the mix up was corrected I was awarded my turkey.

I am very pleased with how I ran.  I think I could have ran this a little bit faster. I'm not really sore today. 

Thank you to the Las Vegas Track Club for hosting the race, the photos, and the turkeys!!

My glass is always half full

 

I am a pretty optimistic person. The glass is always half full in my world.  I haven't been feeling super cheery and positive lately so the urge to post has left me sitting on my hands because I don't want to whine about incidental problems.  I'm still running, not as often as I'd like but it's better than nothing. I'm averaging about 3 runs a week.

I blame this  feeling on my post race "hangover". After a big race there is always a recovery/cooling off period for me.  I also have post race blues because, there isn't a race to look forward to and I have to give my legs time to heal before I can run fast on them again.

Last weeks workouts:

Monday-Rest


Tuesday- 3 miles easy.  I thought it was neat how even my splits were:

Mile 1-8:22
Mile 2 8:23
Mile 3 8:23


Wednesday-Rest

Thursday- Rest (My baby girl had her 9 month check up in the morning so no run for me.)


Friday- 5 miles (up the hill and back down the hill). For the last mile I ran this all out and  I wanted to see how fast I could run that final mile.

Mile 1 8:40
Mile 2 8:54
Mile 3 7:36
Mile 4 7:31
Mile 5 6:57

On Friday afternoon I treated myself to a new pair of running shoes.  I purchased the Brooks Adrenaline 13.


I got them for 20% from the local running store.  I usually buy my shoes at the end of the season right before the newest model comes out.  The Adrenaline 14 comes out in December, so I will end up buying them next June.  I'm pretty loyal to my Adrenalines.  They last a long time and they feel good straight out of the box.  I still have a few miles left in my old  Adrenalines, I will probably break out the new shoes in a few weeks.


Saturday-Rest


Sunday:  7 miles  (six miles tempo with one cool down mile)  I left the house itching to run fast.  I almost believe I have a pressure release valve inside of me.  When I don't get to run every day I feel the tension build. When I finally get to run it's a wonderful feeling of freedom and release.   The more anxiety I feel leading up the run the faster I want to go.  It's not always like this, it has just felt that way this last week, or two, or three.

Mile 1 8:01
Mile 2 7:39
Mile 3 7:38
Mile 4 7:30
Mile 5 7:38
Mile 6 7:51
Mile 7 8:06

This morning I lifted weights for the first time in over a month.  I sometimes forget how much I enjoy lifting weights.  This cooler running weather is the best and I could have honestly gone for a short run this morning.   I will try not to  forget about the weight room though, because this helps keep me healthy and my core less wobbly.

I haven't posted a weight loss update in awhile.  I think I will save that for the next blog post.