Well since I had all day for my "pre-race" routine, I worked in the yard for about 3 hours, cleaned house and did take a nap in the afternoon to try to keep myself awake for the late night run. When I woke up that morning, I was really wishing I hadn't have signed up for the race but somehow I felt compelled to do it.

Got to the park around 10:30 pm, went down and picked up my chip and then walked the half mile back to the car to close my eyes for a few minutes. I was starting to get very tired and VERY grumpy and was really dreading the race.

I started off with Doug, but knew after the first mile when I was at 10:00 that I was going too fast and I needed to slow down. By the end of the first 5k, my time was about 31:00 and I again realized I was going too fast. The second loop slowed down a little and in my mind. I kept thinking that maybe I would just do a 10k and then quit. After the second loop, I was at 1:04 and from then on it went downhill. I met a guy on my third loop and I did about one full loop with him. Russell and I chatted which definitely helped pass the time. He told me about how he used to weigh 318 lbs and then trained for the Houston marathon which he ran in 4:15, I was impressed! Russell was doing a run/walk combo which I thought I would try out.....bad mistake...the more I walked, the more I just wanted to quit. The rest of the run after Russell left me seemed like mental torture. I was beating myself up for about an hour and by the time I finished I was whipped both mentally and physically. I was after 3 am and I was wishing I was in my bed sleeping.

Not do a race when I have such a bad attitude going in, I was definitely PMSing big time and just grumpy.

Ate a bean and cheese taco, even though I wasn't really hungry, drank lots of water, chatted with KSH for awhile as she was waiting for Johnny to finish. Karen was in high spirits and loved the run, I was grumpy and very disappointed that I was 9 minutes slower than last year! How could it be that all this training and I was getting slower? I guess it just wasn't my day.

My attitude, the heat, the time of day, my attitude and well....I guess my attitude!

I thought the race was very well organized, great New Balance singlet for the race shirt, lots of post race food and plenty of volunteers. I think that one more water station would be helpful. Overall it is a great race if you are up for running at that hour.

Race Reports Modeled with Permission from
Endurancecoach's Triathlon Post Race Analysis Sheet.