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track girl
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Joined: 14 May 2002
Posts: 378
Location: UK
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 Posted: 06/11/02 - 19:16 Post subject: park 5K
This race report is my first one, plus I'm really tired, so it may be a little brief.
I decided to run in the city parks 5K back near where I live at home.. and just to turn up on the day provided the weather was OK (no comments please!!!) Anyway, after getting lost on the way there (there were literally NO signposts for this damn park).. I found the circuit and warmed up. It seemed quite nice - one tiny lap, then 3 laps of a mile each. Most of the route was beside ornamental garden type things, bandstands, and lakes. Saw a few people I hadn't seen for ages, and chatted, which was nice. I lined up right at the back.. next to the people carrying water around with them and some people in full tracksuits (what?) as I didn't want to get carried away and start out too fast. I've been running only 1500m recently so was kind of worried that would happen. Anyway, the gun went, and after almost falling over the lady in front of me, it was underway.
Kind of took it steady for the first lap, which felt nice for a change, as I wasn't struggling and felt like I had lots left in the tank. On the 2nd lap I started to overtake and went past about 20. One of the guys I knew kept yelling "focus on Sue up front" and all this stuff at me - "keep your eyes on Sue up front" so that's what I did. I caught up with her about 1/2 way round and said "Hi Sue-up-front" as I went by, but I don't think she appreciated the humour. By this time my legs were feeling really heavy and I was hurting.. I actually felt like I was running too fast for the distance, and was going to blow up and stop at the end of 2 laps. I carried on going and tried to shut that out of my mind though! On the last lap I started to get confused and couldn't work out which part of the course I was on - whether I was at the top end or bottom. It all got a bit nightmarish and I was tempted to ask the marshals "how far?" but they always say something along the lines of not far now, and don't give actual answers, so I saved my breath. Anyway, before I knew it, everyone was speeding up, and the finish line was approaching. I might add this course was described as "rolling" (bullcrap!) and had an evil hill each lap around. This hill was right at the end.. I got up it, then headed into the downhill straight.. and was thankful to see the finish.
I don't have any splits because I didn't start my watch. I finished 61st and my time was 21:56, which although is over two and a half minutes slower than my PR, I was really pleased with as I've only been back running 6 months after my 2 year break. Also, it was great because I really enjoyed it instead of being so nervous I'm practically throwing up on the start line! I think I was 6th woman, but I left before they had the results mapped from numbers to names, and as it was a mixed race I am not too sure how many women were ahead. Fortunately they read out times as you crossed the line and went into the chute, else I wouldn't know that either. They'll be sent out in a few days time. All in all, it was a great evening. The weather held out too!!!
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