Race #7 for the year was this past weekend and it didn’t quite go exactly as planned, but I think it ended up going even BETTER. Awhile back I sign up for the Lake Minneola half marathon. I only paid $15 for my race entry and decided up front that if I decided not to do it I wouldn’t feel bad about it. I had a half marathon planned for January, March, and April so if I didn’t do this one it wouldn’t be a big deal.
About 2 weeks before I decided that running a half marathon wasn’t a good idea. I hadn’t been running alot and things were hurting more than usual, so it was just better if I didn’t do it. About a week before the race I decided to check and see if I could switch to the 5k distance. Might as well get a couple miles in right? Thankfully they let me switch distances AND I convinced my friend Anna-Marie to do it with me.
We were up SUPER early on Sunday and made our way to the waterfront in Clermont. The race course was an out and back along the lake, so it was sure to be a pretty view. We got there just as the half marathon participants were heading out which meant we had about 40 minutes to get our packets, drop stuff back at the car, and get ready to run. The half marathon started a few minutes late and since they were currently running where we needed to be they delayed the start for a few minutes.
Anna-Marie and I always run intervals when we are together and decided to switch things up to the times she had used during her last half marathon. When the race started we ran for a few minutes until the crowd thinned out and then switched to our intervals. Man oh man was it hot! And humid. Summer has arrived early in Florida this year and I think its gonna be a rough one.
We really started feeling the heat and humidity right around the turn around point but we were determined to stay on track with our intervals. Once the finish line was finally in sight we ignored the beeping watches and just kept on running until we were done. We crossed the finish line at exactly the same time!
Anna-Marie wasn’t feeling so great afterwards, so we grabbed some drinks and headed to the “cool-down” tent complete with chairs and big fans (great idea by the way). Once we had re-hydrated and cooled off some we decided to check on our official times. Not only did we finish a couple of seconds faster than we thought, we also got Anna-Marie a shiny new 5k PR!
We wrapped up our morning by stopping at the Clermont Farmers’ Market before heading home. It was a nice morning and I’m glad that I decided to go ahead and do the 5k.
Later that day I got a message from Anna-Marie letting me know that we both had come in 4th place in our respective age groups. Um, what?! I’m never in the top 10 for my age group let alone the top 5. Woo hoo! Granted it was a very small race but it still made both of us feel pretty great. After the race we’d be talking about how we planned to spend the summer working on our endurance and speed, and now we knew we HAD to so we could come back and do this race again next year. Top 3 here we come!
Congratulations! Love reading race recaps, even those I will never attend (I’m in Australia!) Looks like a cute medal too. I think you did the wise thing doing the 5km. One thing runners do well and not so well combined is listen to our bodies, sometimes we don’t like what we hear so ignore. Good job on listening and hearing what your body was telling you.