Results

This past weekend, I ran in two different races – a 5k and a 10-mile race.

Here are the results (the photos will come later):

Friday night I ran the True Blue 5k. I finished 18^th overall, 5^th in my age group; there were more than 130 timed runners. Total, there were more than 240 runners. While I paid the extra money for a timed race, I was not given a 'chip' so my time was not recorded. Luckily, I stuck around afterward to see the preliminary results and noticed that my time was not included. I was in the top 5 runners during the entire first half of the race and I knew that I finished in the top 20 or so, so I was a little disappointed when my time wasn't included in the results that were posted. I found the race director and told him my time – I remember it being under 21:20 – but it got recorded as 21:27 (a difference of about 10 sec but not a difference in the overall standings, so no big deal). My mile split was about 6:56. I went out way too fast and had a first mile time around 6:00. I died off a whole lot in the second mile. I felt pretty tight and it wasn't until nearly the end that I started to feel like I could speed up again. I felt good afterwards – it felt nice to run faster. It makes me miss the shorter races of ½ mile to 1 mile that I used to run back in high school (like in a fairy tale – 'long, long ago in a land far, far away…'). My only real goal going into the race was to run a sub-7:00 pace, which I did.

Sunday morning, less than 36 hours after finishing the 5k, I was running in the second 10-miler of the Road Race Series. I made up my mind before the race that I was not going to go out too fast. And I felt like I was just crawling along. I was really surprised when I was at the 3 mile mark that my time was just less than 25 min; I was expecting 30 min or more from the feel of things. Overall, I maintained about the same pace the whole distance of the race. I was at about 51 min at mile 6 and I finished in just less than 85 min. I finished 112^th overall, 19^th in my age group, out of 517 runners. It took me four minutes more to finish this last race than it took me to finish the first 10-miler two weeks ago, but this race felt SO MUCH more difficult than the first race did. I was used up afterward. It was definitely the most difficult race I have run in a long, long time. But I didn't quit. My legs probably felt the best at about mile 7.5 to 8.5 but I felt totally used up for the entire last mile or so. I am pleased with my end time. I felt like I was running a lot slower than that. It was a very challenging race for me both mentally and physically. I think that my exhaustion had a lot to do with the race that I ran on Friday.

I came home before class tonight. I am in bed already even as I write this. I feel like I am suffering from exhaustion or fatigue (are those the same thing?). I didn't go to the gym this morning. I don't feel like I am being that productive in much of anything lately. I just feel like I am too tired and all day today I felt tense and nervous – really anxious and stressed out by every little thing.

Good night.