PR and Masters Swim

Thanksgiving was a fantastic weekend.  Relaxing and enjoyable, not to mention very fattening.  We visited the in-laws, baked, put up Christmas decorations, went to Mockingjay II, and of course went shopping.  My favorite part of the weekend was Thursday morning!  I ran the Eastbay Turkey Trot in Wausau WI.

I didn't know what to expect with this race.  I knew it would be small (they cap the number of entrants at 1500) and I thought Wausau was pancake flat so I figured I would be nicely set up for a PR and maybe even a sub-30 min 5k.  

I got there WAY too early.  They were just setting things up when I got there but I didn't want to be late and I still had to register.  I waited for a while in my car and then went and registered.  Swag included a long-sleeved Adidas shirt and a 3 pack of Nike sport socks.  Not too shabby.  My bib number was 1297.

After registering I went back to my car and played on my phone for an hour (see, I told you I was early).  At about 8:10am I headed toward the starting line.  At 8:25 we all lined up.  I wanted to PR this race BAD so I decided to line up 3 rows from the front.  Not the best idea, the horn went off and I sprinted out with the fast runners.  Luckily I realized what I had done and slowed down after about 200m.  My garmin says I started the race at a brisk 6:21 min/mile.  WAY TOO FAST!

I slowed down and watched hundreds of runners pass me.  I got into my own pace and soldiered on.  I did not expect the hills.  Ok, so they were bridges not hills.  But they were up up up.  I haven't trained on hills in a while (although I need to start because there are some doozies during IMWI).  The only good thing about the uphill was the downhill.  Whee!

It was supposed to be cold (35 degrees) and raining.  To my delight it ended up being around 42 and misty.  Almost perfect running weather.  The course was well laid out and there were volunteers at every intersection.  Very nicely done by the Eastbay peeps!  Right before the 3 mile mark is the second and last (Thank goodness) bridge.  Up up up!  I was struggling by then.  I knew I needed to keep my pace up if I wanted to come in under 30 minutes.  I hit the 3 mile mark and looked down at my watch.  OH NO!  I was at 28 min and some.  I had under 2 min to finish my last 150 meters.  I started to really push.  I felt like I was sprinting.  As I crossed the finish line I stopped my Garmin and I had managed a sub 30 min 5K!  WHOO HOO!  

Official time: 29 min 46.7 seconds

This morning I took my next step towards IMWI.  I started Master's Swim classes.  If you aren't familiar they are similar to swim team for adults.  I haven't done the butterfly in 20 years but I guess I will be doing it regularly now.  It will be good for me to be in the pool twice a week.  The people seemed very nice and the coach seemed very knowledgeable.  

Swimming makes me very hungry!  After this past weekend I am trying to stay low carb.  I've had 3 breakfasts so far this morning.  I pray I can hold off for lunch without a snack!