Race Report: Albany Race for the Cure 2008

When my alarm went off Saturday morning, all I wanted to do was stay in bed. My brother-in-law and his wife had come up from Long Island the night before and we had hung out eating pizza and chocolate chip cookies, having some drinks, and enjoying each other's company until after midnight. So, I went to bed late and had a fitful night's sleep. Saturday morning, I was tired.

But I got up. I ate a slice of bread with peanut butter on it and drank water and coffee. I took a hot shower, dressed, ran The Stick over my legs and we hit the road only about 7 minutes later than I wanted to. Not bad.

There was no day-before packet pick-up so I had to get my bib and chip that morning. I left my husband and son at the parking garage and planned to meet them before I warmed up. That would have been such a nice plan.

Instead, I made my way to the registration table, which was bedlam. There was so little organization and the line for pre-registered runners was out of hand. Out. Of. Hand. It was not the way I wanted to start my race experience. I walked and walked and walked and walked and finally found the end of the line and stood. And seethed. This is insane. You will never have a good race at this rate. Nothing is going right. I tried to stop seething. I chatted with fellow runners. I stretched. I did whatever I could not to feel annoyed at the situation. But that was tough.

After almost 30 minutes in line, I got my bib and chip and I was off. I didn't even wait for the t-shirt. Bummer! At that point, the scheduled start time was about 10 minutes away, but there were so many people in line that I doubted the race would start on time.

I met up with my husband and son, gave him the brief story as I pinned on my bib and clipped on my chip. Then I took off to find the porta-potty and as soon as I was done I had to dash to the starting line. I never had a chance to warm up, which I always do before my races.

Standing at the starting line, I told myself to focus on my goal, not on what seemed to be going wrong. 24 minutes. You can do it.

The whistle was blown (what? where was the gun?) and off we went, only a few minutes late.

It was a slow uphill start, with lots of super-slow runners causing traffic jams. Yes, that was annoying but it also kept me from going out too fast, which is what I did in my last race. After the hill we ran through a straight-away and then into Washington Park. There was decent crowd support as we ran through the twists and turns of the park. I went through the first mile in 7:46. Right where I wanted to be. I felt great. Some people passed me and I fought the urge to go with them. Run your own race. I cruised up some of the inclines and navigated the turns with no problem. Mile 2: 15:16. Excellent!

One mile left. I was still feeling good, running strong. Hold your pace. As I exited the park, I knew that there was only about half a mile to go. I was so close. I looked at my watch and thought, "You can trip and fall and you would still finish in under 24 minutes!"

Luckily, I did not trip and I did not fall. But I did finish in under 24 minutes. I crossed the finish line in 23:27!

Happy, happy, happy, happy! I beat my goal by a lot and that was so exciting! The best part, though, was how good I felt doing it. I felt like I was running a strong race. Sure, I felt like I was going to puke at the end. But, that's a 5k for you! My legs were fine after the race and fine today. I went for a nice long, leisurely walk this afternoon to stretch them out and they just feel like they are ready to race again.

So, I will have to start looking for another goal race. I may even have to set a new goal . . .

Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

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My stats!
Finish time: 23:27
Pace: 7:33
Age-graded %: 63.41
Gender place: 40/1450
Age-group place (35-39F): 2 (!!!)/139