Run Run Run.....Breath, Breath, Breath....

Well, it's DONE!!! My birthday obligation to my sister has been met! I've completed a 5K with her, although she promptly pointed out that my niece Daphne wasn't along with us, so technically it doesn't really count. WHATEVER!!!! I'm not an "experienced" runner..... HA!!! Now that IS FUNNY!!

The day was an early one, even though the race didn't start until 9am I was up at 5am. Needed my COFFEE and to pre-medicate! G Bill and I picked Meme and Brian (the official race photographers) up at 630 and off we went to Iowa City. Keeping with the "agility" tradition we were the FIRST ones there. Okay, we were ALMOST the first ones there. G The cones were already set up and Brian pointed out that I was NOT suppose to weave in and out of them. UGH!! TOO MANY RULES!!

I picked up my T-Shirt that said, "Run for Bill" on the front. Bill found little humor in this however....I'm not sure he was having very much fun....truth be told. We sat around until Dawn arrived. I was TOTALLY impressed...she was darn near close to ON TIME, which is no small feat for her. I'm sure it helped that she came alone and didn't have to try to hurry 3 other people along. That and this was for a run, something she LOVES to do.

By 8 am things were really hopping. People were arriving and picking up their racing packets. The lobby was full of people in some wonderful running outfits. (Meme said I MUST go shopping before the Marion run. I must admit, I saw some pretty cool shoes!!) People were sitting on the floor stretching and so what the heck, it might be a good idea. It turns out it was, my shins NEVER hurt once!! Maybe I'll have to take a little more time to do that in the future.

People would ask, "What's your goal time."....um....finish without walking was no longer good enough. I told them 34 minutes (this was kind of a cop-out, since my internal goal was 31).
I just didn't want to miss a realistic goal my first time out.

We finally head out the the start line. There's a "s-load" of people and I know I should really be to the BACK!!! Dawn places up a bit more toward the start, not the VERY front, but more mid front. She said we'd have fewer people to pass this way. Boy, was she being optimistic or what!
So this extremely wimpy air horn sounds and we're OFF!!!

For me personally, the first mile is the hardest. I don't know about others, but during that time I'd be more than happy to STOP!!!! As we begin I see what she means about passing people, it's HARD!! Especially when the course narrows and you can't get around anyone. Well, you can if you want to break an ankle in a POT HOLE!! JL! In one stretch Dawn is passing her people outside the orange cones (which means she's moving into the traffic area) At least at the time there wasn't any traffic and she had her NEON orange shirt on that was her "invincible shirt"....meaning you'd have to be TOTALLY blind to miss it!! OMG!!

Now, before this race we had a few rules. I would set the pace and she would push me. She would talk, I would breath. We did pretty good with rule number one and there were a couple times we had to back off of our pace. Rule number two didn't work out too well for either of us. Oh, she would talk all right! But she'd flipping ask me questions!! HELLO!!! BREATHING!!! I'm honestly pretty sure she never understood why I wasn't answering. GEEZ!! So finally I told her to sing me a song. BAD IDEA!!!!! Her choices were, "I am women here me roar", "I will survive" and the like. All they did is make me laugh and thus had negative impact on my breathing.

We made the first mile in 9 minutes. I was hoping for a 10 minute pace, so this was good. Honestly however, I'd rather NOT know the pace as it just makes me want to let up or STOP!! There were a few people here and their cheering you on, it was kind of funny. (One man was rather large outside with his green bathrobe and a coffee) Dawn would hell back at them and jump in the air thanking them for being there, what a WASTE of oxygen!! She would point some things out, like the ducks in the field. HELLO!!! I have ducks at home, I'm just breathing and keeping my feet moving forward!!

Then she said, Oh no, here's the hill!!! WHAT!!! I told her, "I love hills"....she said "No you don't, no runner likes hills."....I wasn't going to waste my breath explaining that it was purely psychological, trust me, I don't LOVE hills, but I didn't want "my running personality to know this information". The good news was....what must go up, must come down. YIPPEE!!!!!

The down hill was AWESOME!!! I wonder if you can find a race that's ALL DOWN HILL????? It would be so worth it!!

I spent most of my time watching the feet of the other runners. There were some pretty awesome orange shoes out there! I also figured out that I should watch the pot holes, of course not until I'd stumbled in the 3rd one. GEEZ!!

Coming around the last turn was GREAT!!! It was soon going to be over, then I notice this little kid go sprinting by. Dawn said, "Kick it in, are you going to let him beat you?" I didn't answer, but I was thinking "HAIL YEAH"!!!! G I did kick it in and sprint to the end. My finishing time was 29.37. YIPPEE!! I beat my goal, of course now I have a base line in which I need to keep getting better. I guess I should have slowed up a bite. I'm thinking next race I'm going to use my grandma's age of 97 so I'll be in a division by myself!! G

I learned some things about proper running. You are suppose to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. I suppose that's a good breathing strategy if your nose isn't plugged. I had to get water at every post, not to drink, but to moist my dry mouth. Dawn said it was because I was mouth breathing....I told her that it beats the alternative.

The second thing I learned is to pick a person and stay with them. This will help you stay up and focused. Dawn and I had a different philosophy on this. I would pick someone out ahead of me and when they got too far ahead I'd pick out someone else. Dawn said I was suppose to pick someone out ahead of my and PASS THEM, then pick out the NEXT victim to pass. Minor details.

All in all, it was fun. I finished. I have my bench mark and I'll probably do a few more races this year. I'll try to get better and beat my time. I'll try not to "taper" my training off as much as I did in the last couple weeks. You pay for it in the end!! G

I ended up 182/1094 total finishers. 7th in my age division. Here's the results. Some people were AMAZINGLY FAST!!

http://www.fitnesssports.com/Apr.races/RiverRun/08/RiverRun5k.html