Blossom Time Race Report!

(See post below for pre-race day planning -- short version: Goal time: 47:00 with a pace of 8:57.) Okay, race day...After a short warm up, I find my way to the huge pack of runners. A woman says, "Are you doing the 1 mile walk or the 5 mile run?" I tell her I'm doing the run and she says, "Oh, you better get closer to the front!" So I meander through the crowd and move up about 30 feet. It looks like the front so I figure I'm good. Then the gun goes off....yet nobody is moving! I'm confused! Then I look up and see a sea of people WAY ahead of me! I wasn't in the front AT ALL! Oh no! So I figure, OH WELL and just start trying my best to move up to the front through this crowd.

Finally, I start picking up the pace and turn on my iPod. I immediately started running to the beat and my pace was set. I know there's a big hill that starts right before the first mile marker, so I prepare. As I start to see the marker, I also see the hill. I'm pleasantly surprised -- it's not near as bad as I thought. I power up the hill. I hit my first mile at 9:12 but the guy at the marker said 10:12. It must have taken me a full minute just to work my way up to the starting line! URG! Oh well...the hill's not over and I need to really pick up the pace!

I see the Mile 2 marker coming up, the big hill is behind me. I know I can start cruising soon. I look at my watch -- 8:30 for my 2nd mile. Holy Moly! I'm feeling great too so I keep going. The course here is pretty flat and is on a residential road. There are people sitting out at the end of their driveways cheering for us. I even get a couple of high fives!

As I hit mile 3, I check out my split -- 8:33. COOL! Pretty close to my last one and definitely under the 8:57 I was shooting for. My legs started getting a little tired as I was heading towards mile marker 4. My legs wanted to slow down. I ignored my legs and pushed on. I cruised through to hit a split of 8:27 -- my fastest mile yet. Only one more to go now.

I push through and my last mile time was 8:21. Woo hoo! I can see the finish line now. Only 400 meters to go! There are people lined up along the street all cheering for us! I go as hard as I can even though my legs feel like they are dying! I see my DH and he jumps out to take a pic. I can here him yelling for me!

I don't know how fast I ran those last 400 meters, but my finish time on their clock was around 45:??. Take off that minute it took for me to even get to the starting line, and I'm in the 44s! Cool beans! (Still waiting for the official time.)

Overall, the race was awesome! The hills weren't tough for me at all and I really feel like I pushed it the best I could. It was great having so many people cheering too. And to top that off, I was able to hit the fair stands for a yummy post-race meal -- fair fries and lemonade!