9.13.2012

Labor Day 4 Miler Race Recap

I think this is the longest I've taken to recap a race, but it's kind of nice because now I have extra pictures like these!



That'd be my buddy Mandy; we met through the Y and bootcamp class and ran this race together last year, so it's become a tradition of sorts.  The week before she asked me what I thought my pace might be; since I've been focused on half marathon training for my goal race, I hadn't really thought about it.  Errrr, well I averaged an 8:16 in my last 5K so maybe around an 8:30 average pace?  Four miles is a weird race distance: pace it like a 5K and try not to puke in that last extra mile? I suppose it isn't that weird of a distance, since this was my second one this year (first one being the Iron Heart run). I dunno! Whatevs! Beer! Teammates! Friends!

It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones at this very popular race. Side note, I met Nuun CEO Mason (half in the pic on the far left) and I'm wondering just what he's pointing at here...? "My bet's on her!" Hah.



Bloggy peeps: Dawn, Megan, Lauren, Me, Rebecca

Megan, Me, Bird in Training (Mason's daughter)


I'm glad I was relaxed and really just focused on socializing and beer.  And, lo, it was my fastest race to date.  What the whut?  Yeah, that last 5K was a PR with an 8:16 pace - I ended up with an average pace of 8:09 with an extra mile tacked on: official time 32:09.  Now of COURSE I want to run another 5K to get a 24:xx.

I went out pretty fast: a mile that started with a number 7 is a bit crazaay for me, so I tried to back off it a bit.  But I just have a hard time in a race not going full throttle; I just have to wait for my body to tire out and slow down naturally.  As evidenced by the fact that I very rarely have a negative split in a race.  Speaking of splits:




The first two miles flew by and there was a nice out and back where I got lots of cheers from fellow friends on the course and a side five from Mandy.  Love mid-race out and backs; ones at the end, not as much.  The course was nice and flat as well.  The third mile was starting to wear on me (obviously my slowest) and by the last mile, I knew I was putting it all out there because, yep, I felt the need to vomit.  I managed not to, and had a strong finish with a mile that was probably faster than the first (taking into account that I need to add 7 seconds on to my GPS time vs. chip time, that last one is still faster than the others).  I'm really proud of that mile.

The goodies this year were above and beyond.  (I almost felt a little guilty that I wasn't a half marathon runner at this event.  But it seems like all my half mary peeps had plenty of goodies at the end as well.)  After grabbing my requisite banana and water (and Nuun, of course) there were samples galore: Power Bar energy bites, Think Thin bars, Orchard bars, and Naked juice/smoothies.  PLUS, they were giving away free tee shirts from Naked with your choice of three iron on symbols.  This is my new sleep tee, soft and cozy.  WIN. 

'Love' 'Family' 'Explore' (they were already out of 'Runner' symbols, obvs)


After gathering up all my loot and checking the results, I hung out with teammate Arielle for a bit to watch the half marathon finishers.  She was there to cheer on her husband who ran the 4 miler in 24.44!  She wasn't up for racing as she'd just finished IRONMAN Canada the weekend prior.  Talking to her is rather awe inspiring.  We watched Megan rocked her 13.1 with a PR and she joined us to have a few cold ones in the Mac and Jacks beer garden and then we all resumed our socializing with some other Nuun-ies (oh, yeah, Arielle also works for Nuun) at Redhook.  I was glad to keep Redhook as part of the tradition for this race; the course and Marymoor worked fine as a fix while the trail is closed, but there's just something more festive about being at Redhook for a race.  I look forward to doing it there again next year!  Big thumbs up all around for Super Jock n' Jill for putting on a great race.

2 comments:

  1. Love the photos and all of the Oiselle ladies too! I need to visit Seattle more. Way to go on the great pace and finish time.

    ReplyDelete