I've already been blasting the internet with my crowing about how
well I did in yesterday's 5k, but I thought one more toot of my own
horn here on Yahoo and then I'll give it a rest : )

Weather was muggy, but overcast, which was yucky but better than
sweltering sun. Race started at 9 am, was 30 minutes away from my
house, and I did not preregister, so we left at 7:30 am. A friend of
mine from court reporting school ran with me. She has not been doing
couch to 5k, but she has been doing her own version of it with timed
intervals. She's 30, so 12 years younger than me, and very trim
though she claims to be "out of shape," "shape" being a relative term
as she is a former Marine. Her "out of shape" and my "I wish" are
about the same thing. Anyway, she's a former distance runner, has
not run in years, and has just been easing back into it. This 5k was
her first run over three miles and she beat me by almost three
minutes (not that I'm counting, haha!)

The run was the Mt. Hood Jazz Fest Fun Run, first annual, and was
held on a very lovely community college campus (Mt. Hood CC) as part
of the jazz festival. There were vendor booths, artists, food, beer,
etc. at the festival, the race being kind of the "kick off" for the
day. One special treat that I LOVED was the fact that there were
jazz musicians scattered along the 3 mile route playing for us as we
ran. That was unexpected and so nice!

So, the nitty gritty. I started out too fast and knew that I was
going to run out of steam, but it's really hard to slow down when
you're part of a group that's moving along at such a nice clip. And
man does it suck to have people whipping past! So I was having my
internal debate about slowing down, trying to formulate a plan, and
literally before I could even figure out what I wanted to do to pace
myself, I see the one mile marker. I was elated and couldn't believe
I had run a mile already, checked my watch and it was 10:08 minutes!
That is by far the best mile I have ever run.

I ran past the first water station because I usually don't stop and
drink anything when I am running 5k anyway. Somewhere between mile
one and mile two there was a hill (the first of many) and, get this,
I RAN UP THE HILL. I couldn't believe it. I hate hills, but I had
nice momentum and I kept it up. But here's the kicker. Get to the
top of the hill, round a corner, and there's another effing hill. I
didn't have it in me to make it up that second hill, so I walked up
the hill. There was a water station just over the top of the hill,
so I walked to the water station, drank a cup and then started
running. The walking segment up the hill and through the water
station was about one minute.

Got back to a brisk jog and hit the two mile marker at 21:15. I was
losing steam and the crowd had broken up so it was easy to slip into
a nice slow jog at this point. Eventually I could hear the finish
line up ahead, but couldn't see it because, guess what, another
freaking hill. I walked up the hill, and the thought of running that
sucker was pretty funny because I barely walked it! Got to the top
and could see the finish line in the distance, so I started running
at a good pace. Crossed the finish line with my arms thrown up in
the air, which my friend who was watching thought was hilarious.

Grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it. Grabbed a second bottle
and sipped it. Got out of the crowd because I thought I was going to
throw up (I didn't). There was a nice buffet for the runners of
fruit and bagles, but the thought of food was too much, so got away
from that area.

We walked around the festival for a little while and I got a
smoothie, which totally hit the spot and made me feel human again.
Enjoyed some music and checked out the artisans (I bought a very
lovely bracelet).

So I am really pleased with my second 5k. I beat my goal (38
minutes) and beat it good! I am happy that I came in in the top half
of women my age and the top half of women overall. I have another
local 5k that I am planning to run in September and I hope I can do
as well in that one. I'm not going to up the goal, though, because I
felt really maxed out by this race, I don't think I want to be
running any faster than what I did yesterday. Having started running
at age 42, I am happy right where I am. I'd like to work up to
longer distances, but I am pleased as punch with an 11-12 minute
mile, thank you very much.

My race stats from the Web site are posted below. Thanks C25k'ers
for all of the support!

Shana, Vancouver, WA, Female, 42
Chip Time: 0:35:52
Chip Pace: 11:33
Age Division: 4 / 9 (I was 4th out of 9 women in my division)
Place Overall: 64 / 108
Sex Overall: 24 / 53 (I was 24th out of all women, of which there
were 53)