The First Race of the Year

Well, it's January 19th and I've managed to post ONE blog post this year.  I'm off to a good start for 2015, aren't I?  In all honestly, my passion for my blog is almost zilch.  I read blogs every single day and stay up to date with everyone and try to comment as much as possible, but when it comes to sitting down to write my own posts, something stops me and it feels almost impossible.

Then, something exciting happens and I get my motivation to blog back.  The running club I am a part of had the first race of the year on Saturday.  It's a 5k and a 10k at one of our beautiful state parks.  The course is 2 loops, meaning you pass the finish line and go on to the second loop before passing the finish line AGAIN and running about a tenth of a mile before turning around and finally finishing.  You have to do the loops twice for the 10k, meaning FOUR times passing the finish line.  Also, it's hilly, so it's incredibly hard to find a groove.

All photos of the race are thanks to the running club's photographer!

I woke up on Saturday and knew my mental space was not in a place to run the 10k.  I'm usually the girl who goes for the longer races, but not for this course.  About one minute into the race, I realized I had made the correct decision.

It was a "warm" day.  Everyone was saying before the race started how warm it was.  I was standing there in my layers, shivering wondering what the heck everyone was talking about.  But, after a two mile warm up, I understood.  It was super muggy and hard to breathe.  Everything was sticky.  My first mile was sub-7, but then I got to some uphills and my body said no thank you.  It was not my day to race.  I cross the finish line in 22:18, my personal worst.  It was a combination of the hills (I need more vert!), the mugginess, and my mental game.

Can you tell the finish was on an uphill?  So much for the kick!  I still was second woman and 10th overall out of over 100 people.  So, I guess it wasn't too terrible.  I did not feel happy about this race at all, though.  I cooled down with an awesome running lady and we decided to do the 5k loop again.  We joked the entire time that we were running the 10k, just with a little break in the middle.  Of course, my fast friend won the 10k, coming in just over 35 minutes.  Yes, he did just run a 2:38 marathon a month ago.  Yes, he is 34-years-old.  

After the race was the club's annual party.  There is a drawing and pizza and beer.  They also hand out the circuit awards.  You have to run 6 races to complete the circuit and if you win each race in your age group, you get a special award.  I was a terrible person this year and stole it out from under Karen.  Luckily, she forgave me and we can still be friends because I really like her.

I woke up really sore in my lower back.  Apparently the downhills didn't like me so much.  I met up with the above runner friend to do a slow recovery run on the beach.  We took it very seriously and threw a frisbee the entire time we ran.  

If you've never thrown a frisbee before while running, I highly recommend it.  It made the miles fly by, even though we were going slow.  We even had a record of 12 completions before one of us dropped it.  Our record standing still was only 13...  We are obviously better frisbee players while running.  And the beach was ugly, as usual.

It's been a great 2015 so far.  I will be back with a post about what I've been up to this month.  Maybe even tomorrow?  

Have you run any races this year?