**BEWARE, this post is negative in nature. It contains bizarre analogies of monkeys, tempertantrums, monkeys having babies, excuses, and winning about hills. You'll likely say to yourself, Shut up Tara! You may even post it. Ha ha, I know you will:) However an honest race report** Where to start here. I have put off writing this report because I have been waiting for the negative monkey to get off my back. I know he exists because Nan calls it the "Third place monkey" (http://nan.fastrunningblog.com/blog-01-29-2011.html) and he was on my back whispering negativity while I ran to the finish line in third place. So, since he is still lingering around I will have to end with a list of positives. I had little sleep due to my 8 year old vomiting and my 2 year old getting use to his new bed, by falling off every couple of hours screaming. Boo hoo, no one sleeps well the night of a race anyway. I woke up feeling like a train had ran me over twice and felt a little ill, but I think I planted that in my own head to feel sorry for myself at the time. See how I'm building up to a race of excuses? I know. I arrived 30 minutes before and prayed my ankle would take a vaca so I could run. It killed for the 1 mile warm-up so I mentally threw the race in the trash. I think that's when I met up with the monkey. We lined up to the start and I saw Kam. He looked a little lost. Turns out he ran an unintetional tempo 6 mile warm-up due to getting lost and just made it back for the start. We started 5 or so seconds from the start. I went out conservative. Lots of girls were ahead, maybe six. My plan was to run a even effort for the first 3-4, use the hill miles 4-7 like interval work and pound out whatever I had left for a solid 5k. Miles 1-3 (6:45, 6:08, 6:37) Felt stale x2. My fault for a weeks worth of poor training. The first mile began to climb then had a good downhill for mile 2. Somewhere in the first mile there was a screamer. MarkP talks about this in his post too. It was bizzare, but entertaining. Just after the 2 mile mark, a girl sprinted past me to catch up with the first place girl. She recruited a pacer. Lucky. First 5k was somewhere in the high 19's judging by splits. In fourth place here. Miles 4-6 (6:55, 8:06, 7:46) were all over the place as you can tell. Impossible to get into a rythem but I knew this would be the case. There were periods of near speed walking to surges seconds later, only to be slowed down by another hill. Around 3.5 the first of two climbs began. I don't remember much here other than thinking about walking. Mile 7 (8:49) deserves its own paragraph. Crazy steep. Lost sight of the top 2 girls. The monkey had a baby during this mile and it also came along for the ride. The baby specialized in throwing baby fits, much like the one that was going on in my head. Mantras were gone, all I could think was " you are slow, tired, and injured so walk". I didn't walk, I just listened to monkeys mock me:) BUT, I had a plan to shake them off come mile 8! Miles 8-10 (6:02, 6:32, 6:54) Go time. I knew this is where I would be able to gain on the ladies. Second place girl created quite the gap during mile 7 and I had just passed the girl in 3rd. Mile 8 was a nice downhill I tried to push. Mile 9 seemed to be somewhat downhill as well. One guy passed me, but I passed two others. The last mile to the finish was a surprise. Uphill! At least it was only uphill for about .5 with the rest gradual down to the finish. I passed one more guy as I sprinted to the finish. I saw the leaders of the wolf pack as I crossed. They didn't say a word to me, but I waved and smiled- then about fell on my face. No need to talk to me, since I didn't beat them:) I told them "good race" later on, and they nodded. So I am making improvements. Next race I will have to try out my drafting techniques once again- just to create an equilbrium. It's only fair. Ran backwards on the course to give unsolicited coaching to the other runners coming in. Some tolerated it, while others were clearly bothered:) Met up with Kam to run a 4 mile coo ldown so he could get 20 for the day. I wasn't sure I could do it, but seemed to put along ok. We had awkward periods where we both took turns walking for no apparent reason then had to remind each other to run. quite the cool down. We were both spent. I went back to get a massage. As I waited in line a surge of chills hit me to what has now tuned out to be flu symptoms. Yea for me. Okay, the positives! Great weather with no wind, ankle pain was at a minimum and did not effect my race, I didn't have to pay a babysitter, and I haven't thrown up yet. Anyone can have a million excuses for why they didn't perform. If I had won, I wonder if I would have had as many complaints. Today wasn't my day, and I can learn why it wasn't to make the next race better. Not sure where I stand in the series at this race now. Was ranked 1st, but likely 2nd, possibly 3rd. It is all pretty close. I need to have 3 quality weeks till the half.
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