So, I had previously registered myself as a Clydesdale for this race. Not thinking I would make weight, when I checked in on race morning I told a volunteer I needed to switch to AG. The volunteer told me to step on the scale, just to make sure before she switched me. With my race gear and breakfast in my stomach I was over 200, so I was in the Clydesdale category.
I was going into this race with dead legs. This was the last run before I started tapering for the Sullivan sprint, and I fit 10 workouts in this week, so I was BEAT DOWN! The previous day I had swam .8 miles and rode about 30 miles @ 18ish Mph.
So, knowing I was in no place to compete, I went into this looking at it like it was speed work. Just a training run. In fact I even had my headphones on, which is a physical affirmation of my plan for it to be "training." My plan was to run 1 mile in zone 3 and then 3 miles slightly above my LT. I tried to put the whole Clydesdale thing out of my head, even though I knew it my odds of a medal just went up dramatically.
I ran my plan, and everything went pretty much according to how I wanted. As a side note, the pack was very fast, I'd have to say (without seeing the results) the median speed was about 8:30/mi, where as most 5ks I've seen recently have been closer to 9:00/mi.
After about 3 miles I was definitely feeling the affects of running over LT. In other words, I was hurting pretty bad. That "hey, you're gonna barf" feeling was in full effect, and I was going to back down a bit. But there was this one runner... One of those walk run people. Ack. I'm guessing she was either trying to use the Jeff Galloway method in a very unstructured way, or she was just odd. Anyway, she would stop right in front of me, I'd pass her, then she'd see me pass and sprint ahead of me only to stop again and walk. Anyway, that drives me crazy! Especially because she was able to keep up with doing it! So, all thoughts of backing down went away after about the third time she did that. I saw there was a big hill right at the end. I was going to beat the walk/runner up that hill. I told myself that it wasn't training anymore, and that all I had to do was beat this one person that was walking half the time. I not only passed the walk/runner, but I managed to pass about 6 other people on the way to the finish. **Note: Nothing against the Galloway method...do whatever you want, but if you're going to do it, don't stop in front of other people, move over!
By the time I got to the clock I was dizzy, out of it, and very close to loosing my breakfast. I was pretty proud of myself for a strong finish though.
As a happy coincidence, I managed to get third in Clydesdale (which was coed, so it included Athenas as well).
Afterwards there was a very nice post race party. It was a smaller race, and there was a really cool cook out afterwards with hot dogs, potato salad, and home baked cookies! It was all really delicious, and all exactly the kind of food I shouldn't be eating. I have to admit though, after not having one in probably two years, a hot dog tasted damn good (extra mustard, onions, no ketchup..everyone that's ever lived close to Chicago knows you'd get beat down for putting ketchup on a hotdog).
Rob, CJ, Ritter, Dylan(Little Ritter), and Me, all sporting medals!
Sunday morning I was really feeling the effects of this race, but after putting my swim in I'm now offically tapering!
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