Run Report

This weekend was a "cutback" week. That means only 10 miles, that's the good news. The bad news was that my ten miler was a race at the Twilight Zone uphill loop:P I was nervous about this race...the course is really tough. I hate running uphill!
I kid you not, this was a race for runners in the know. We drove 40 minutes out of the city to the forest preserve, and it was like a Dead Show for runners. There were runners everywhere, and these folks looked fast! At one point, I was in line at the port-o-let and two guys were talking, it went like this...
Guy#1: "Wanna do a warm up?"
Guy#2: "Sure, what'cha thinking...1 or 2 miles?"
Guy#1: "I'm thinking 2 miles?"
Guy#2: "What's your race strategy?"
Guy#1: "I'm gonna go out slow, maybe a 6 min. pace and then kick it up at about the halfway point..."
Holy moly, that guy thinks a 6 minute mile is going out slow!!!
The race start was broken down into 4 starts, fastest to slowest heats. I, of course, was in the slowest heat. The bib color was how you knew your heat (white-elite runners, red-really fast, yellow-normal, blue-me).
I kid you not, there was four minutes between each start and when my group went, the announcer actually said "this is all the big girls, right? There are no guys in this heat?" like it was some big funny joke! What an a**! But, I kept my cool.
I went out at a sub 9 min. pace and held on. I ran up every hill that course threw at me. In the last 3 miles, I started passing some yellow bibs, then I started passing red bibs! The red bib folks had an 8 minute head start on me! I passed them! I was so psyched by this:)
It was a tough race, on a hot day, and I held my own. I came in at the front of the blue pack and ahead of many of the yellow, and even some of the reds. I'm OK with how it went...The down side, my shoes didn't make it...I'm off to buy new shoes this week. Can you believe I blew out my shoes?!?

Oh, don't forget to check out my giveaway!