Saturday, July 11, 2009

Didn't Even Mess Myself



I love progress! This is exciting. Today was the Roger's River Run 5K in the thriving metropolis of Longmont, CO. Our whole family ran it last year and we showed up again this year. It was a great day for a run in Colorado. Hot air balloons overhead, mountains as the backdrop.






Last year, prior to starting my marathon training, I ran it in 26:30. This year: a PR for me of 23:44 putting me in 4th out of 28th in my age group and 15th out of 257 females overall! You have to understand what an accomplishment this is for me. Prior to starting to train for my marathon in Sept. '08 I had never run further than a 10K. My best 10K time was 56:00. I am here to say that if you get off your ass and train and have a smidge of discipline, you really can meet your goals, whatever they may be. And I didn't even crap myself. Obviously I am disciplining my G.I. tract as well. Here we are, post race:




I will say that I started out fast and got progressively slower. Not the best strategy as I usually prefer to start slow and speed up at the end. But that's what I did:

Mile 1: 7:10
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 8:02

For an average pace of 7:39.
My first born and stud-son, Sam (age 11), ran it in 27:40, which was also a 5K PR for him. Emma and Ken finished in 40:00. Not bad for an eight year old and her 43 year old dad.

Now, something weird happened to me while running and I wonder if this has happened to any of you. This was a first for me. About mile two my right leg felt totally dead. Like all the energy was drained out of it and I couldn't make it work. It did however, keep working. It was almost like it was asleep without the pins and needles. A complete and overall feeling of fatigue in that leg. Then about a half mile later, it woke up. Very odd. Anyone had this happen before?

Kind of cool - I saw someone I know in the community who reads my blog after the race. He yelled out "Hey, there's Shut Up and Run!" Hi Eldon!
Best weekend to all of you out running races this weekend! I know there are tons of them around here. Congrats to Marlene at Mission to Another Marathon for her 5K PR of 22:40!!!

15 comments:

  1. PR is good! Beer reward for PR is better! Congrats!

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  2. Congrats on a great time...way to go!!!! It looks gorgeous there!

    I have never had that leg thing happen to me when running...very odd. Mine only gets pins and needles when I sit cross-legged for too long.

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  3. Congrats on your PR! Way to go! Also very happy for you about not shitting yourself.

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  4. Damn girl, nearly 3 minutes for a 5k. That's pretty f'n amazing! You son almost beat my PR too:) Very cool!

    I've never experinced 'dead leg' before. Is it related to elevation I wonder?

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  5. Woohoo, congratulations on the sweet PR!

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  6. Damn, girl! That is a HUGE PR!! Fantastic speediness there - congratulations :)

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  7. Congrats!! I did the exact same thing this year, shaved minutes of my previous 5K time and set my new PR 5K at 23+ too! It's amazing what more miles under your belt can do. Huge congrats to you!

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE that your whole family ran the race, especially your kids! I secretly hope my daughters will run races with me when they are older. Too damn sweet.

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  8. congrats to the whole family!!! You all did great! And I'm glad you didn't crap yourself :)

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  9. congrats on the PR!! and damn you are ripped!

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  10. hmm never had that one happen..I mean everything else hurts, but nothing dead!

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  11. Thats a Huge jump for your PR, CONGRATS!!!! Super fit and showin' it, good stuff! ;) I love that the whole fam heads out for the race.

    The leg thing? Eh, never had that happen. I guess, just fingers crossed it doesn't happen again? agh, sounds uncomfortable.

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  12. That's a heck of a PR! I love that your entire family does races like this. I hope I can run with my kids like that some day.

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  13. Whoa! You AND your family are amazing! What an awesome PR and great times for all of you! And what a beautiful location.

    I have not had that happen to my leg, but it sounds frustrating :( I am happy it went away!

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  14. CONGRATULATIONS! That's a terrific time -- woo hoo!

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  15. congratssssssss on your PR!!!! and seriously your abs are AMAZING :)

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