Lake Run 5K (3.15 miles)
38:29
Average Pace 12:29/mile
Ah, the Lake Run ... my age grade placement nemesis 5 years in the making:
2011
2nd in my age category (never to be repeated, boo)
2012
2015
On the plus side, look at that thigh muscle definition - ra-ow!
Oh, and note the InkNBurn, of course
As you can tell based on photos, the temperature of this race has varied quite a bit over the years - with a pre-race hoodie required in 2013 and 2014. So of course, the year where I'm feeling marginally sick pre-gun, it had to be so hot I wore shorts. And was sweating prior to even lining up. Barf. (Well, not at the beginning of the race, but ... stay tuned).
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Since I've run this race 5 years in a row now, and it's just a small town local event, I showed up with little time to spare on race day. With about 20 minutes until the gun, I scrambled over to the pre-registered packet pickup area and grabbed my swag:
Yeah, the shirt was more or less the same shirt from the last two years, with the only difference being color. Here's last year's shirt for reference (2013 was the same design as well, with a slate blue t base):
I sure do wish they could come up with a more unique and sleeker looking design. I dunno, say ... something like this:
Oh if I were king. But I'm not. So ... anyway.
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As I was saying, I wasn't feeling so great prior to this run. I had a fairly acid stomach and was suffering lots of ... burps.
Lady like, I know. Sorry.
Unfortunately, the stomach didn't settle, and when I lined up for this race I had some serious thoughts of posting my first ever DNS. Between the heat and humidity, and the off stomach, I really wasn't feeling it. As the national anthem was played live on trumpet, I may have shed a tear ... only because, I really didn't want to run.
Bang! No turning back now. Time to go.
I've mentioned in my previous year's recaps, this is not a very eventful race course. It's fairly flat and boring, and although you are running the lake ... you never really see it from the road, as cabins and trees block your view the entire way. Also, there's very little crowd support (almost none really). And the participant pool is small, so there's not many people around you to watch as you run, either. So, as I slogged through my first mile and I burped my acid stomach away, I regretted my decision to run this race yet again in 2015.
Truly, this isn't a BAD race, it's just not particularly exciting or interesting. My only real reason for running it again this year was the fact that signing up for this race would force me to get in some sort of workout over labor day weekend. Otherwise, I'd be sitting at the cabin getting fat. So as I hit about mile 0.5 or 0.75ish and burped ... a bit more than a burp ... I was not loving life. And was REALLY wishing for some on course distractions. Which unfortunately never came.
That made fighting off the urge to puke in mile one a bit of a challenge, that's for sure.
Trying to find something else distract myself, I decided to focus on the deal I hade made with myself pre-race: I was going to TRY to continuously run at least the first mile. Mostly because I wanted my misery over with as quickly as possible, but also because I didn't want my time to suck too bad.
Luckily for me, I managed that goal. Though, depending on your definition of "running" (pace), you may dispute me a bit on that statement:
Once I completed mile one, the course became a game of "how far can I run until I NEED to walk". Fortunately, I was able to mentally push myself a bit, and I did an OK job of winning at that game. As you can see on the chart below, I managed actually to "run" a fair percentage of the course, with only a minor walk break at the end of the first mile, an extended slow down at the turn around point (lets face it, after those fabulous burps, I needed to drink some water), another walk break around the end of mile 2, and then two brief walk breaks in mile three before finishing strong in the final stretch.
Not too shabby, though I do wish I could have done better. Seeing the 38 and change on my watch when I pulled into the finish line was a bit of a let down. I did feel a bit better when the woman taking our bib tags complemented my shirt. And even better yet when the timing official said "Oh yeah, that's Natalie. She's always wearing something, and runs all our races. She's like a local celebrity." Heh.
Sweating profusely, after the steps were taken to record my official time, I headed directly to the refreshments tent. There, I promptly downed three or four paper cups of water. Unfortunately though, all the food on the table just didn't do much for my upset stomach, so I declined.
Once I knew the water was staying down, and my sweating had subsided some, I decided to head on out. With a 38+ minute finish, I knew I'd never take an age placement. And honestly, I just wanted to get home and shower.
Which by the way, felt fantastic ... and was followed by a 2 hour nap. Huzzah!
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And that's the story of how race bib #63 joined my collection. Here's to another race soon... next weekend, yikes! Hopefully this race goes better!!
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