Pre-Race
I woke up at 6 this morning and made it to the race site at around 7:15. Even though I wasn’t intending to race the Firecracker, I was feeling nervous. There were a TON of people there, and I was all by my lonesome because Christine got sick and had to sit it out and I wasn’t able to hook up with Greg before the race.
I picked up my bib and jogged back to my car to drop it off. I made it back in time for their opening ceremonies which included
The Race
The race totally didn’t play out like this for me. It looks deceptively flat in the beginning, but it really felt like a soft incline (verified by Maggie) that built up to that crazy ass hill that was every bit as painful as it looked. I tried running as much as I could up that hill, but eventually had to stop to walk for a bit when the burning sensation on my calves started to be too much. That’s when I got a chance to snap these pics.
This is the view in front of me. You can see that 99.9% of the people are walking up that bad boy. I walked for about a minute and then started jogging up again.
Toward the upper portion of the hill, I saw Greg on his way down and I yelled out to him. He joined me for the final trek up, which was pure torture.
I can honestly say that if Greg hadn’t been running with me, I probably would have walked a lot more but he really pushed me to keep going. As we rounded the turn around and were on our way down the hill, I told Greg that I needed to walk a bit, but he told me to keep on trucking! We slowed down the pace a bit, and I was able to build it back up after a min or two.
Here are my stats, and I’m damn proud of them! I did negative splits for the very first time and I finished strong. Ran the last quarter mile of the race at a 9:34 min pace =D (totally blows my 400m time target out the water by 2 mins!)
Split 1: 13:14
Split 2: 11:17
Split 3: 10:18
Split 4: 0:24
Total Time: 35:37 (chip time)
Average Pace: 11:29
Average HR: 168
Max HR: 179
Calories Burned: 371
Age Group 30-34: 90 out of 218
Overall Finish: 1132 out of 2336
Right smack in the middle of the pack! =)
Greg thinks I could have run a lot faster than I was running because I was still talking fairly easily and he could hardly hear me breathing. But physically, I felt like I was pushing myself pretty hard. But it’s really got me thinking about redoing my time goals and aiming for something better. Maybe I can do better next time during my next 5k (the Deena Kastor 5k) =) I’m still chasing after my 5k PR set in 2008 (32:35). Maybe this’ll be the year!
Post-Race
As we were chowing down on our post-race goodies and catching up, we randomly ran into Tony (and his girl :), who we worked with at Aesop. What are the odds! We had a good time catching up and then bid each other adieu.
After the race, Greg and I went to walked over to Sam Woo and had some goodies!
We chowed down as we talked about some of our fave shows (Modern Family) and I told Greg about some of my other fave shows (Biggest Loser & I Survived…), and of course there was talk of running, diet, and running books.
Thanks for joining me at Firecracker and for a fantastic brunch, Greg! =) As always, good times!
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March 1st, 2010 at 6:09 am
Great job on the time of the 5K! I would be more than happy with that time! Sounds like that hill was a bear; I prefer a nice, flat, fast course! Great job though!
March 1st, 2010 at 6:54 am
looks like it was a great day for a run! I HATE hills! great job on the negative splits!
March 1st, 2010 at 9:15 am
Excellent job, Sheryl!! That hill looks intimidating – way to go!
March 1st, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Way to go, Sheryl! Keep up the running momentum!!
March 1st, 2010 at 3:10 pm
@Erin – Thanks, girlie! =) I usually prefer a flat and fast course but ironically all the 5ks I’ve done have been rather hilly! The Firecracker is by far the worst one, though. I think my next 5k is a lot flatter, so hopefully I’ll have a better time!
@Heather – I totally hate hills, too! Unfortunately, I have to prepare for the SF half marathon which doesn’t have hills, but rather mountains =/ SO not looking forward to that one.
@Melissa – Thanks, chica! =) Yeah, that hill was a bear. It felt like it went on forever and at a 8-11% incline it HURT!
@Raciel – Thanks, coach! I’m hoping this’ll kick start a nice training roll for me =) Here’s hoping!
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I didn’t know you had a running blog. This is awesome. You are an inspiration!
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Hi, Kim! =) I do! It actually wasn’t a running blog when I first started it, but that’s kinda how it evolved, so I moved it over to this domain name. Thanks for stopping by and for the super sweet words!