raulgonemobile: I couldn't help myself

So, 2 weeks ago was the Bridge Run. I was a good doobie, not doing ~~any~~ much hard training for 2 weeks, one day for every mile ran, blah blah.

One of my resolutions/goals this year was to break 25 minutes in a 5K. My PR was about 30 seconds shy of that last year, so it was an attainable goal. I took a look at the race calendar for the summer, and the race that fit best was today. Sigh. I couldn't help myself. I went.

I don't do speedwork. I've slacked on hills lately. I went in hoping to do 7:45 miles, putting me in just under the wire.

Of course, I didn't sleep well either, and it was hot already at 10:30 am. Hot, I say. Damn hot. And, it's only May!

This was the "first annual" of this series, so it was a brand new race. I've never seen the course, didn't even know where I was going. lol.

It was a small crowd, probably about 100 runners. I did something I normally never do. I lined up near the front. One of the ~~guys~~ kids in front was talking about doing the course in 15 minutes. He apparently had the other day, but "it was hot today". OK, so I'm not going to win. Got it.

This was all clock-timed.. the loose "ready, set, go", and we were off! Being near the front, there was certainly a lot less weaving and bobbing around.. I kind of liked that. With such a small field of runners, we fell into place pretty quickly. I looked down at my watch.. 6:30 pace. Yikes. That's not a good thing.. I don't know what I run a mile at any more, but that's getting into the red zone- never mind 3.1 miles.

We were about at the half mile mark, and I looked ahead. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 people. Wait, what? I'm in 6th? Holy shizz. I don't run here. Ever.

The course was described as "slight rolling hills". They rolled up, that's for sure. Right around the 1 mile mark, there was one that went down, thankfully. I skipped the water stop here and kept plugging. I passed someone. Fifth. Passed a chick. Fourth. Passed the next guy. Third. Are you f'in shitting me? 3rd place? Granted, we're only half done at this point.

Alas, the course was an out-and-back. That previously mentioned downhill? Yeah, that turned into some big time suckage.

That's the elevation chart, allegedly. It should be a mirror image, but whatever.

This is what I thought the elevation felt like:

So, the chick I had previously passed decided that after we went up that monstrosity that she would cruise on by. Damn. Fourth.

I'm majorly sucking wind. I've gone out entirely too fast, and I am out of my element. I am just praying for this race to end. "What the hell have you done to yourself?" "Are you kidding me? You paid to torture yourself like that?" and on and on.

I took a cup of water and threw it over myself to cool down a bit, and I just tried to grind it out.

So, I hung on. For dear life. Kept track of those behind me. One foot in front of the other.

End splits looked like that. 6:53, 6:51, 7:26, :41. Holy hell, Batman. I hung on. Fourth overall. 3rd male, 1st in age group. Wow. 21:51. Wow. That netted me a cool "1st" medal and a pair of socks.. who can't use socks?