Minneapolis is a city of runners, and when I lived there it seemed like there was one a month. Because of that, I got to participate in a lot of races. There aren't as many here in the north county, although that's starting to change. Yesterday I ran the Wine Country 5K and remembered how much I enjoy the short races.
Wine Country also produces a half-marathon, which I've run a couple of times. I intended to run the half this year, but my piriformis was still sore and I didn't think I could manage the distance. So I signed up for the 5K with some friends, two of whom also ran the New Orleans Half marathon with me a couple of weeks ago.
With 5Ks, the distance isn't the challenge and having been in half-marathon training, it was almost a piece of cake. Almost. You run faster in a 5K, of course, hence the title for this post. A running friend describes 5K races as, "blow and go" cuz you're out of breath most of the way. That was certainly the case with me--I ran so hard I thought my heart would jump out of my body. My maximum heart rate was 192; talk about anaerobic.
Rain threatened and I wore a rain jacket just in case. At the last minute, I decided to ditch the jacket and I'm so glad I did. I wore my short-sleeved New Orleans race shirt with arm sleeves and tights. Also gloves and headband. After about a mile, I pulled the sleeves down, stashed the gloves in my waistband and wore the headband around my neck. That look really makes for some cute pictures, let me tell ya.
After mile 2, we ran through the vineyard on a dirt road. Since it rained the night before, the ground was firm but cushiony and made a nice surface to run on. We climbed a hill and I wheezed like a charging rhino. A woman caught up to me and gave me encouragement as she passed me on the uphill. I passed her on the downhill, then we ran in together.
As I crossed the finish line, I was spent. My friends had beat me in and cheered me on. A volunteer removed my race chip and I went to grab some grub with the girls. Egg burritos never tasted so good.
One of the nice things about this race is that it has a small field. I say that because I got 3rd place in my age group (55-59)! There were 10 of us in that category and my finish time was 32:05, a 10:20 pace. My friend SS is 55 and won our AG in 28:14 and my other friend Blossom won hers (60-64) in 30:51. The other woman in our group PRd with a 30:57, but was 5th in her AG.
We were given a tile coaster with our respective places written on it, which is what I'm holding in the above picture. A nice souvenir of a fun race.
4 comments:
Congrats for the finishing time and the podium. Sometimes it's difficult to decide what we have to wear during the race, I learned that less it's better than more.
I'm beginning to enjoy smaller races more and more! Congratulations on your 3rd place award! It looks like a good time was had by all! I'm also happy to see you blogging.
Thanks for your comments on my blog. I haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm running, albeit slow. I would love to see you next March at the San Diego Half Marathon. It was so enjoyable this year, and I hope they keep it as is.
Hi Dori, Congrats on the race. I've been having a look at your blog and I was wondering if you would be interested in a partnership with Tribesports.com? We are a sports and fitness social network with a very large running community and I think there is a great opportunity for us to work together. Please drop me an email and we can talk about this more, blog@tribesports.com.
Thanks!
Hi Dori, nice write-up, I hope you come back to blogging and tell us of your further adventures. I hardly race anymore but I did a 5K last month and it was indeed "blow and go".
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