Astros Race for Pennant 5K

So spur of the moment, I decided to go ahead and run the 5K on Monday. I wussed out of it last year, and I didn't want to have to live that down again.

Annie and Jeff were nice enough to pick me up, and then Annie was nice enough to make fun of me for wearing a fleece in May in Texas...I'm cold-natured (cold-natured I said NOT cold-hearted...most of the time). We had plenty of time once we got down there and met up with fellow runners. We did a warm-up lap, and I definitely felt like I'd rather still be in bed. My right Achilles was a little sore in the days prior, but more problematic was that I still felt sleepy...oh well!

Anyway, the start was anticlimactic, and I can't say that I was really all that excited to take off. It was at this moment that I realized these were the first few miles of the marathon course...thankfully I appear to have mostly blocked out that experience, so it didn't really cause any ill effects.

I took off at a nice pace weaving around families of people choosing to walk the course...which don't get me wrong, I fully support, but line up in the BACK people! Then came a HILL, which is actually an overpass, but still, how rude to put that in a 5K, then came more hills, and then any time goal I had went out the window. I still pushed it at a reasonable level, but I knew I had to hit those "hills" again in a minute because it's a stupid out and back course!

Anyway, so I kept Annie in sight most of the race. I joked with her before that I wanted to run a 5K with her and let her be my "bunny". It seems the word I was actually looking for was "rabbit", but being me, I've taken to using the word "bunny" instead. For my non-running friends, a bunny (well actually a rabbit) is someone that paces elite athletes to make sure they stay close to their goal finishing time. Annie is faster than me, so I've been wanting her to pace me on a 5K to see how hard I could really push myself. But when the hills hit and the heat was brutal, I said forget it.

So I'm past mile 2 and there's my bunny Annie within sight! I pick up the pace and catch her in the last half mile. I pull up along side and say "Come on bunny!" which she hears as "Come on money!" I find this absolutely hilarious. This exhange was further compounded by her replying "I threw up" which I heard as "I blew up". I'm giggling again just thinking about it. Anyway, dumb and dumber here finished out the race the best we could. Once again, I finished knowing that I could have run harder, but oh well, stupid hills messed with my confidence. Someday we'll run a 5K on a cooler, flatter course and we'll really see what we can do.

But in the end, I finished at 27:13 with Annie a few seconds behind me (even with the puking). This is just 6 seconds slower than my recent 5K time, so at least I know the other one wasn't a fluke ; ) No races on the schedule anytime soon, so back to base-building and speedwork I think...