Closer, but not Quite Sub-19

19:20

That was my 5K time on Saturday at Tosafest.  Womp. Womp.  It is my best 5K this year, but it still starts with "19".

I don't usually warm up, but have found while training that I could benefit from warming up.  Getting older, I guess.  I warmed up a bit before the race on Saturday and felt ok.  The gun went off and we were off.

I was the lead female for the better part of the first mile, which led me with the suspicion that I went out too fast.  My first mile was 5:59 so where I wanted to be, but it felt like a 5:00 to my legs.  The second mile was 6:27.  The third mile I just kept trying to stay in it but it was difficult.  I ended up with a 6:06 third mile.

I remember looking down at my watch as we got on the track for the last bit and it was in the high 18s.  I wanted to finish strong.  I was on the heels of an older gentleman and I knew my positioning was annoying to him, but I just could not make myself run faster.  "You can go around me" I heard him say; to which I replied, "No. I can't" and he said "YES YOU CAN" so I went around him and he yell cheered at me through the finish.   Later on, I saw him at the awards ceremony and he said "You had some real grit out there."  So that was a highlight of the race.

When I finished, an older man approached me with a camera indicating he needed me for a photo.  He brought me over to the first two women finishers and it became apparent that he thought I had finished 3rd.  I had finished 4th.  I indicated that I hadn't finished third and then went to find the real third place finisher and I don't know if the man felt bad for me or what, but he made me be in the picture.  The 2nd place woman asked if the 3rd place woman and I had tied...a subtle way to ask, "Why the hell are you in this photo".  It was really embarrasing.

This would have been a great race to go under 19 as there were some fast women there.  The winning woman was 31 years old and 18:29.  Second place woman was 41 with a time of 18:52.  Third place woman was 37 years old and 19:14.  So yay for 30+ year olds rocking it :)  I ended up with an age group medal.

Also, this course is billed as flat and fast..."a great course for a PR".  The course was more difficult than I was anticipating because of that - there were more inclines than I was anticipating.

Now I am in the conundrum of trying to find another 5K to do to again try to go under 19.