In a Nutshell...

Well, here's what happened in my 5K race yesterday, completely laid out in this nutshell!  We awoke at 5:45am so we could get ready and drive over to the race that started at 7:15am.  We met up with my 2 friends that I was running the race with.  Before the race starts I make sure to go pee (this was at 7am).  We strip out of our warm clothes and line up to begin the race.  Prior to beginning the race I told the other 2, "Don't let me hold you back.  Run ahead of me and I'll see you at the finish!"  They didn't believe me when I said I wasn't as fast as them!

We started the race and stayed together for about .6 of a mile when the 1st one took off ahead of us...about .2 later, the other one left me to my lonesome!  I can't wear headphones because of my big head sweat issues, so I could just listen to the runners around me and the sounds of the streets.  I actually felt pretty good running the first half of the race.

Because I have a pea sized bladder, I had to pee at the turnaround point (about 1.55 miles), but was back in action a short while later, even though I had to take an extra second to drip because there was no toilet paper in my port-o!  How is there no tp in my port-o?  I'm sure nobody else stopped to pee after just a mile and  a half!  Or at least that many that would use up ALL the tp!  The only other person that I saw stop had a bloody nose and she chose the stall with the tp in it!

Anywho, at about 2.5 miles I started feeling heavy.  My knees and nips were still cold from the start and I didn't seem to be warming up at all, even as the sun glared down onto me.  It was probably still 60 degrees out though.  I knew I wasn't gonna finish in 30 minutes when I saw the 10K'ers rounding the corner up the street (the corner that signaled still at least .2 left)!  But I pressed on, because really it was about finishing it!

So, I cross the finish line, get my finishers pin, and find the GF who was the best cheerleader in town!  Here's where things get interesting.  We wait in line (twice) for my official time.  Now, I had a stopwatch that I started right as I crossed the start line, but because of my stupidity operator error I messed it up after about a mile into the race.  I went to go wipe my nose with my sleeve and my nose pressed a couple buttons and it erased everything.  So, it comes as a surprise when they say my official time was 33:37.  That's not a terrible time, first off.  But here's the dinger: This is also the gun time!  Now, after looking at my 2 running partners times, I noticed that they both had a 41 second delay between gun time and finish time, and since I was right there with them when we all crossed the start line, I'm thinking I probably had the same sort of delay, so if you took off 41 seconds my official time would be 32:56.  Now, this sounds more realistic of my abilities!  The GF already decided I can't deduct my pee time because I pee during every race!

But, here's how I look at it:  If I accept this 33:37 as my official time, then next time I run a 5K, I can kill my old time (hopefully)!  All in all, other than some slight discomfort in the nip area, I am glad I did it.  It really says I've got a LONG way to go for Vegas, but it's about finishing right?  Yeah, we'll see about that!

I'm so fast, I'm just a blur!

~Chix