8K Race

Today is the day I've been training for all summer - the 8K race.  I couldn't believe how nervous I was!  Couldn't sleep well at all last night, and then I was just jittery until I got to the actual race site.  The race has two components, of which you can run one - the 8K (4.97 miles) or the 3K (1.86 miles).  Last year, I had just started running two months prior and did the 3K in about 17:30 (9:23/mile) with the girls in the jogging stroller.  I was jealous of the 8Kers, so I decided to do it this year.

This is the first race I've run where there was chip timing.  In other words, when the gun goes off, the timer starts.  Even if you're 30 seconds back from the starting line, that's when your "actual" time starts.  It's kind of unfair, seeing as how you're doing nothing but walking up to the start line in those 30 seconds, to count it toward your total time, but whatever.  This time, with chip timing, my time didn't actually start until I crossed the starting line.  So, that entire slow walk/shuffle up to the line?  Didn't count.  Woohoo! 

My goal was to run the entire thing with no walking.  Did I do it?  No.  However, I still finished the race in the same amount of time that I thought I'd do by running the entire thing.  Wow!  I must have been going much faster than I thought.  Having the Motoactv (thanks, Mom and Dad, for the bday present!) helped because it could tell me my exact speed, though it was going haywire for some reason through most of the course (for example, it told me I was going 7:03/mile for the longest time, and then it suddenly said I was at 11:05/mile, even though I was still going the same speed.  um...okay?  guess i need to work with it more).  I ended up walking a total of three minutes, but I finished the race in 47:10 (chip time - gun time was 47:32).  47:10 = 9:29/mile!  Wahoo!  If I had to choose a time that I was aiming for, I'd say it was 9:30/mile, but even with the walking I got that?  Rock ON!

That made me 330th out of 631 runners.  Not too shabby!  I was very pleased to finish under 50:00, and was irked that my pacer (the guy I picked to follow most of the race) fizzled out at the end.  Now I've got to figure out what I want to do in December for a race.  Woot!