Monday, June 27, 2016

Run Down Cancer 5k: Push baby, push!!

So....as I went to write my marathon race report, I realized that, whoops! Forgot to finish this one.  So...Running with the Devil tomorrow.  Run Down Cancer 5k today!!

It's been a friggin long time since I ran a 5k.  Last fall, I ran one in Fairport, but it was 4 weeks post Biz, so I had designs to see how well I could do without a kiddo or post kiddo body.  My friend Jen RD's this race in memory of her brother Steve, who passed away from cancer.  It met several criteria: help a friend, good cause, relatively flat course (or so the site said!) and a good swag/post race feast for $15.  Plus it included a fun run for Rob.  We were sold.  We recruited a few friends and made plans to trek to Mendon for the race.

By a last minute twist of fate, we ended up being in a spot where we only had care for Rob, so we figured we would change up the ole plans and make it Biz's first stroller race.  Greg was feeling pretty good morning of, so I decided to push her, as beating my 22 minute PR seemed pretty unlikely on the (NOT FLAT) course.  Not sure why we didn't realize Mendon wouldn't be flat!!

Pre race, we played with the kids on the swings, ate some pb sammies, and geared Biz up.  We headed for the start line, kissed Dad g'bye and Biz and I headed for the back of the pack.  And we were off!!

We had some tunage going on in one ear, rockin out to Fifth Harmony, and felt pretty good.  Biz was squealing happily as I sped up, trying to stay outta the way as I passed people.  Mile one was down in 7:53, sweet.  I felt thirsty, but otherwise good.  We started mile 2 and I slowed a bit - I've only pushed Biz once in the stroller for running and was really out of practice.  We hit the turnaround, waved to Daddy, and grabbed a sip of water.  Mile 2 was down and the clock read 16:23.  I figured we had a 26:00 in us, as mile 3 was uphill somewhat, but we had this!

Then Biz had enough.  She started to shriek, so I slowed and consoled her.  Nothin.  I hit the gas - the path to home was much closer than doing anything else!  We stopped to walk for 30 seconds with Dad and were off again to speed into the home stretch.  Up the last big hill, I lost some gas and slowed down quite a bit, and the 4 women who had been dogging me passed us.  Dammit.  I was pretty sure at least one of them was in my age group, so we scrambled to catch up.  Down to the finishers chute and....it's gravel.  Crap!  I tried to run with Biz but no luck - the last 200 yards was totally non runnable if I didn't want to pop the baby out!  We slowed, the women re passed us, and we smiled and giggled (yes she was back into it!) as we hit the finish in 26:57 - 3.15 miles at 8:43 pace.  A solid effort.

We chowed down and waited for the results and Rob's race - and the type A crazy runner in me was a bit dejected when the former came - came in 6th out of 12 in my age group - and 3 of the women who passed us...were in my age group!  30 seconds between place 3 and 6....you know I was trying to figure out where I could have grabbed that time :-P  Then (with help) I realized that I had pushed 50 pounds of baby and stroller the whole time, and got the hell over it.  As my buddy who ran put it...."I got beat.  By a 9 month old".  Technically, so did I because Biz ALWAYS just beats me by 2 seconds :-P

On to Rob's race....the kids run was a 50 yard dash of madness, and Rob had a blast!!  He took off like a shot at the gun and hit the finish line strong - and was so proud of his medal!!

All in all it was an awesome race - well worth it.  We will be back next year and I smell 2 new PR's....now, it's on to the next race - Running with the Devil marathon in Las Veags next week!  Yikes!!

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't run that pace without a stroller! Well done!

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    1. You are so sweet. Wish we lived closer!!!

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