What a Race!

Last Saturday, which happened to be St. Patrick's Day for all of you who aren't Irish, I had a four mile race on tap.  I had only a general idea of where the race was so I set off from my house an hour earlier than I needed to for fear of getting lost.  No need to worry, my gps got me there just fine.

In honor of the day, the shirts were bright green!

Now, you might remember that a week before the race I mentioned something about choking on race day.  Apparently all I needed to do was blog about it because I couldn't have asked for a better race!

I saw a lot of running friends before the race as well as after the race.  It was great to know so many people there!  It doesn't hurt that this race is capped at 700 (or maybe 750) and closes out early so we all planned early on that we would be doing Runnin' of the Green (Island).  Side note:  the race was actually in a place called Green Island!

lining up for the race

The race started and I felt good.  I decided to bring music (an oddity for me) and just listened to my breathing while I ran.  I was wearing my new Mizunos for the 3rd time (they had all of 6 miles on them before the race!) and they were so comfortable!  

I was pushing myself, but I wasn't breathing too hard from it.  The first mile is the same as the last mile so it was good to know what I would be getting into at the end (a little uphill at mile ~3.25).  I never heard the starting horn (too busy talking) so I started my garmin when I started moving which worked just fine for me.

I had a glass of water at mile 2 which was what I needed.  As expected, I started to get a little light headed about mile 3, so I gave myself a break after the uphill and walked for a 5 seconds.  I booked it after I had my little water break.  I just knew I wanted to finish strong...it wasn't until later when I looked at my garmin that I realized what strong meant.

Garmin:  4.04 miles, 37:14 for a 9:14/mi ave, 166 ave heart rate

Shocking splits:  9:21, 9:22, 9:21, 8:59

official...37:09

and DONE!

I honestly don't know how I pulled out a sub-9 minute mile for the last mile.  I really didn't think I could do it if I ran just a mile and I did it at the end of the race.  In the end, I am ecstatic with my race!