Race Report: A Tale of Two Races

April 18, 2009

5K Road Race:

1st place F30-34

5K Trail Race:

2nd place F30-34

My husband (along with his fire company, a neighboring fire district and Florida Gulf Coast University) has been working on a benefit 5K road and trail race for the past 6 months or so. Last year Scott thought it would be a great idea to hold a road race with proceeds benefiting the families of local fallen firefighters and police officers. His PIO liked the idea and the Valor 5K road & trail race was born!

Yesterday was d-day! Scott and I woke up at 4:30AM in order to be at the race location for 5:30AM to help with set-up. The amazing FGCU rec staff and student volunteers already had things rolling. Let me just say, these kids are efficient! If all of the youngsters out there in the big-bad world were HALF as committed to daily tasks as these young adults were, I would not be worried about our future at all!

After cutting up what seemed like a million stinky "everything" bagels, Scott and I decided to do a very short (too short in terms of distance) warm-up before the road race began. We decided to run in BOTH races with the road race starting at 7AM and the trail race starting at 8AM.

I must say, although the 5K road race was not a PR for me, it was my smartest run road race to date. I let all of the rabbits go... knowing that most of them would poop out by the 1/2 mile mark and allow me to eat them for breakfast. The plan worked. I passed so many people who went out too fast that I stopped counting. In the past, this would have been me getting passed. I ran my first negative split 5K road race EVER and crossed the finish line with enough fuel in my tank to be excited about the trail race.

The ONLY person who passed me during the entire 5K road race was... SCOTT! I knew it would happen sooner or later and I am just so dang proud of him. He passed me with about 0.1 mile to go and I shouted to him, "Go, BABY!" He earned a new PR and a boost to his confidence.

Scott, just about to cross the finish line. Chip time: 24:28

Hot on Scott's heels (not) and overstriding in a very un-Newtonlike way! Chip time: 24:37

The 5K trail race was up next. Scott and I had about 30 minutes to gather ourselves up, take in some fluid and cheer on the remaining road race runners. We decided to run together for the trail race and push ourselves as best as we could. We started at the back of the pack (dumb) and had to navigate around slower runners (on a tight path) and those who were having difficulties with the twists/turns/ruts on the course. So, the trail run ended up being slightly less of an effort than the 5K race... but it was FUN! Oh, how I LOVE trail running! There's just not enough of it in Florida.

Scott and I crossed the finish line hand-in-hand (literally) in 28:25 and whomever was taking pictures for the track club missed a very cool photo op! I guess we weren't fast enough b/c it appears that the person stopped taking pics around 27:50. Oh, well! LOL!

After doing a bit of clean-up, we took the bikes out for an easy 15 mile spin. We had been told that there was an alligator nest under one of the bridges on the race course, so we decided to try to locate it during our bike ride. Didn't happen. Either we don't know what a gator nest looks like OR we were looking in the wrong area. Bummer.

This morning was a 40-miler out at Babcock Ranch. Poor Scott has to do the same ride, but on the trainer (he's at work... poor baby). I got to ride with Roy & Anthony Borrego (father & son team = really, really fast) and even did my share pulling their paceline for a bit. Sondra and Jeff were also there along with a few other guys from town. My ride today was supposed to be moderate, but I probably pushed a bit harder than that (sorry, Heather). A good morning. My legs are pooped now... and in need of a rest. I think I may bake some fresh bread and catch up on some tennis that I DVRd.