Saturday was the annual Adam's Heart Run held at Oak Mountain State Park right outside Birmingham, Alabama. There was a choice of distances - 5k, 10k, or 10 miles. The last time I did this race was probably around 9 years ago and I chose the 5k distance back then. This time I thought the 10k choice would be better since I haven't run any 10k races in years. The Vulcan run 2003 was probably the last time I ran the 10k distance. All my races lately have been either 5k, half marathon or marathon distances.
I mentioned it to L, aka the running nazi, and she was all in. She even suggested we might want to do the 10 miler. I thought about it for about half a second and then convinced her that the 10k option would be better since
1. it's a very hilly course
2. we just finished running 13.1 miles at Mercedes half marathon less than a week before.
3. My calves still aren't totally healed.
4. Mentally, I just didn't like the idea of "racing" 10 miles. 6.2 miles seemed more manageable to me.
L finally agreed. The 10k distance was it.
On race morning we decided to meet at the park around 8am for the 9am start. I was running about 10 minutes late so when I got to the park I tried to call her. My cell phone wouldn't call out without the area code added so I tried to memorize her number as I dialed it with the area code. No answer so I left a message not realizing I had dialed the number wrong. Opps! Sorry, whoever I called.
Disregard message!
I went to register and didn't see L anywhere so I walked back to my car and decided to try to call again. This time the speed dial worked, but L's husband answered her cell phone because she had forgotten and left it at home. I realized I had just woken him up. Opps again! He told me she should already be at the park so I went back toward registration looking for her.
This time I found her. She had been looking for me too. It was a fun race, the ground was a little wet but the rain had cleared up from the night before. I wanted to do around 50 minutes, preferably under 50 but missed it by a little over a minute. My total time was 51 minutes and some odd seconds. I placed third in my age group only 20 seconds slower than the 2nd place finisher!
L did good too and now she's suddenly super motivated and said we should do a race EVERY weekend so we can get faster AND get up a 5am on Tuesdays to run with the "hill" running group.
Hills!
5am!
While the weekend races would be fun, I think I'm going to have to pass on the 5am Tuesday morning "hill" run.
All Images from Birmingham Track Club
5am? That sounds extreme, even for marathon running. Way to go on your time too. And I like how they gave out bottle openers with the race name on it. The gift is perfect for impromptu beer drinking.
ReplyDeletei've had many a 5 am run preparing for marathons in the past. I try to avoid it now. 6:30am is early enough!
DeleteThe bottle opener award medal is very cool. Now I have a good reason to have it hanging in our kitchen.