Kickin' Asphalt

According to my Half Marathon training, today was a scheduled 5K race day. So, I signed up for the Camper Scamper 5K in Dallas, TX benefitting physically handicapped kids. I showed up and found some of my friends that had also signed up for the race. We sat around chatting and resisted the urge to join in on the Jazzercise warmup.

We stretched and kept talking. Then came the call to the start and I promptly headed to the back of the field. You know, its a mental thing. You get up front and masses of people pass and get angry because you are slowing them down. When you are in the back, not that many more can pass you and you start passing people. It was all psychological for me. Of course, I need any advantage I can get.

On to the race.It was through a very nice area of Dallas along Turtle Creek. I knew I had started out faster than normal but I stayed with my pace. I had stated to my friends before the race I was going to try to finish in less than 37:58 which is my current PR. I also said I didn't want to injure myself either.We took off and I immediately started looking for my path of least resistance from walkers/dogs/ stollers. I finally focused on one of my friends who was running at a little faster pace than I was and my goal was to keep him in sight. I get to the first mile and my Garmin beeps and shows me the time split...11:40. About a minute faster than I had originally planned. I could only think, uh oh...now I have done it. Gone out too fast. I couldn't think about it for too long because as I made the first turn, there was a massive hill to climb. So I focuse on the hill and up I went.

I hit mile two and felt surprisingly strong and thought, this could be a good race. At the 2.85 mile point, there was a girl that I had been running with pretty much the whole race...I did not know her...but evidently she was a part of a running club and her coach came back and met us at that point and began to encourage her. What they didn't realize is that I was listening too.

We come to the point where the finish line is in sight and the coach says to her..."Okay, when you hit those balloons, I want you to kick it into gear and leave this big ole dude behind."

She just kind of chuckled. Now, normally I would let stuff like that roll off my back. I have nothing to prove. But ever since I have joined Team Kickin' Asphalt, it was like a switch that went off inside of me. We hit the balloons in stride and before she could kick, I did and I think I heard her scream because of the dust I was kicking up...okay, maybe not, but I left her behind. I was sooooooo happy...I beat a girl! Okay, I was really just happy that I had enough in the tank left for a kick. I set a new PR of 36:13 which is 1:45 minutes faster than my last one.

Here were my splits.
Mile 1.....11:40
Mile 2.....11:49
Mile 3.....11:38
.13 ..... 1:06

I was soooo happy with my race today.