The 6th Annual Max O'Hartford 5k...

Alright Friends…so I am officially tired (day light savings and a crappy night sleep can do that to a girl) and I am even considering heading to bed as soon as I put my niece down..But before I do I wanted to be sure to post some pics and stories from today’s race.

Well first and foremost I have to give a big shout out to my friend Jessica who ran the 5k with me, even though the beer and corn beef I promised her (a.k.a bribed her with as a way of convincing her to run the race) didn’t quite work out the way we planned (it was cold and windy…and the line for food was crazy long… and well the beer wasn’t the greatest.. although we did get a commemorative cup to put it in..see picture, although it's not the greatest take). Beyond that I must also mention that I pretty much broke every rule of racing while preparing for this race, so if you’re looking for an example of what not to do…this might be it...hee hee!

So as I said, I had a really crappy night sleep last night. I got all into this book I was reading and didn’t turn in for bed until well around midnight (which because of daylight savings was like 1am). Then my dog, who for all intents and purposes I love dearly and usually love having in my room, woke me up somewhere around 2:30am with her insanely heavy breathing…which led to a very long game of me kicking her out of my room, hearing her scratch at the door until she got it to open, and then me having to crawl out of bed to kick her out again (well that is until I got smart enough to actually lock the door so that she couldn’t open it!). Suffice to say, when my alarm went off this morning I was in no mood to actually get up.

Then I had church before the race and had to pack for my sister’s before leaving for church, so of course I was running around like a crazy person getting ready and almost forgot to have breakfast (don’t worry I shoveled down some cereal, a cheese stick, and an egg before I actually left). I also ended up having to leave church immediately after service to rush home and meet Jessica who still had to pick up her race packet (which was really no biggy considering I had to exchange my shirt for a smaller size anyway...you can see a picture of it to the right). On top of that we didn’t really know where to park once we got into the city so it just made me all the more nervous that we were going to late (After all the stressing though, we ended up having about a 45 minute wait before the start of the race… basically enough time to wait in the line for the ladies bathroom).

Anyway it was a cool, windy and overcast day here in Hartford (as you can see from this picture) so we ended up waiting inside until about ten minutes to start time and then headed out to the starting gate. Now I’ve done enough races now to know a few things about myself and how to/not to run these races. For one I know I am not a very fast runner and thus very willingly tend to line up at the back of the pack (mostly because I have fears of being trampled like the guys who do the running of the bulls in Spain). I also know that since I’m starting towards the back of the pack I’m probably not going to pass the start line until at least a minute after the starting gun goes off. Finally I know that when I finally do get to the point where the pack starts to break up that I can’t allow my excitement, emotion, and competitive spirit dictate my speed (I need to run my own race, at my own pace, to beat myself…it’s not about the other runners). Anyway… having that attitude really helped me to enjoy this race and take it all in (I also ran the entire thing without music which was actually a first for me)!

So some things I noticed are that one, I LOVE the running community! I already knew this about myself before this race, but it seems every time I race I am reminded how much of a supportive group of people runners are. Luckily for me this was also one of the few times that I got to be the one supporting others instead of needing to hear that “Keep it up, your doing great” comment and that was an awesome feeling! I also noticed that I really need to work on running more hills. Although the race took place on the downtown streets it sure seemed to me that there were a lot of rolling hills…and although I never once felt like giving up I also found myself dreading it every time I sped down a hill since I knew an uphill trek was just around the corner. I don’t want to be the type of person who dreads the next corner….I want to know I can conquer whatever may come around the next bend!

Anyway so for all you number people here’s the official timing (cause I know that’s all you really want to know about…but don’t worry I get it…that’s why I checked the results page almost every 30 minutes this afternoon until the times were finally posted…hee hee)…

***My gun time was 35:48 with my net time actually being 34:32 (which averages out to 11:31 minute miles).

***I placed 644 out of 856 female runners

*** And I placed 1,267 out of the 1,545 people who ran….although I like to cheer myself up with the fact that I was 43rd out of the 84 people in my age bracket (pretty much right smack in the middle)

Overall it was a nice run and if anything it made me realize that with each race and practice run I am becoming a more efficient and even faster runner. Well thanks for reading (because I know this was a long post)!!!

Jess