Saturday, July 5, 2008

Firecracker 5000 Race Report

I am regressing. Not sure how that is possible but I am actually getting slower when I run. Kevin and I ran in the Firecracker 5000 on Thursday night and had a great time in spite of the not so great times.
We decided to run this race on a whim Tuesday night and I am glad we did. The main draw is that the race starts at 11:55 p.m. "How often do you get the chance to run a race at midnight," we said? We had to do it for the experience. It was also refreshing to go into a race without any particular goal and to run it just for the fun. The course was around Seattle Center and was a little hilly but the only serious hill was within the first mile of the race so I still had good energy for it. Mile two felt really strong as we ran by the inebriated folks on Queen Anne Ave. Definitely feeling tired during mile three but overall I felt good and felt fast but the clock said something very different. I finished in 32:51 which is a pace of 10:36 per mile. I have only run two other 5K races in my life slower than this. I even finished this year's Furry 5K 1:17 faster than this race and I even had to walk part of that race because of the hill. What the hell? My reasoning for the slower time is 1) I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday nights trying to get in my four days a week and my legs did feel a little tired going into the race, 2) hilly course and 3) warmer temps (even at midnight) than I am quite used to yet. Or perhaps I just suck. Always a possibility.
One positive note; this race had Clydesdale divisions (men over 200 lbs. and women over 160 lbs.) and I decided to enter myself as a Clydesdale because maybe all the faster big girls would stay home this year and I could have a strong divisional placing for once. Sadly, there were a few much faster big gals but I did place 7th in the Athena (female Clydesdale division) division. Hooray! I am the seventh fastest fat girl in Seattle !!!(who chose to run this race)

1 comment:

Kath said...

You rock, draft horse girl. : ) And you get super bonus points just for getting out there and running. This pony just sits on the couch and gets bigger and bigger.