Fives

This is a two part post revolving around the big number five.

Referring to E's years and kilometers ran as fast as possible (yet still not fast enough).

So, my baby. My little Ella Ann is five. It is all coming, kindergarten, sleep overs, being embarrassed by her parents, driving, college, marriage, wha....deep breath. Five is really a landmark birthday, at least for E it is.

"Mom, I can do that. I am five now. NOT two, NOT 4." (Duh.) The "duh" is silent, but implied.

She's my heart. Love that crazy, curly haired, enthusiastic, monkey that she is.


And the other five?

The second part of this post should be titled "The elusive 19" or "How to not run even splits (when you are trying to do just that)".

So, I ran a local 5k with some neighborhood friends on Saturday. Save our Skin 5k. I've been trying for years, years to get under 20 minutes in a 5k. (I did once, but the course measured 2.86. Damn you, Garmin. Ignorance is bliss.) I've been close 20:09, but never gotten there. I always try though.

6:26

That's what I need to run. Just hang on to 6:20s.

First mile. 6:16. (Nice, money in the bank. Got a few seconds to spare here.)

Second mile. Wow. This is really almost completely an uphill mile. This is not easy anymore. ow. ow. ow. 6:48

Third mile. Just hang on. Hang on. Use Angela's mantra, she's super fast. Try it. "light and fast, light and fast". ugh. 6:45, not quite Angela's kind of fast.

The finish was two really hard right hand turns after the 3 mile marker. I pass a girl ahead of me at about 2.5 miles and just knew she let me pass her so she could chase me down and pass me right at the end. I had a gut feeling.

But, I didn't want to slow down to her pace and hang back (plus I didn't know what kind of kick I might have.) At 3 miles, I check back and she's closer and hauling to try to catch me. (I knew her face, she does tri's and knew she was in my AG. We were battling for 3rd OA) We make the first hard right...she's closer. I am DIGGING in here, there's no way she's beating me. DIGGING IN. Less than .1 left and we're both in a full out ugly sprint to finish. Right turn two steps ahead....the guy ahead of both of us won't let me by. I step right, I will fall into the curb, I step left I hit him. I hit him. Yelled, "COME ON!!!! MOVE!!!". This little misstep slows me down, I get caught....we finish exactly together.

The girl was really cool, we hugged and slapped hands and introduced ourselves. Really fun to fight that hard, really fun to leave it all out there. No sub-20 today (20:26), but happy with the effort.

Tied for 3rd OA and 1st AG. (I was bummed since the race actually had me as second to her. No chips and she just happened to hand in her tag first.)