Pre-race routine:
Ate 2 packages oatmeal with 1 Tbs peanut butter and sugar free Da Vinci's. Drank a sugar free hot cocoa.
Event warmup:
Light stretching. My right quad was bothering me so I was very careful with it, knowing it would be better to do light stretching before and let it work out during the run. Hit the head twice and made sure I was wearing light layers since it was COLD outside!
Comments:
Very cold run! Fortunately I had my new technical running/biking jacket and the great windbreaker that Wrayjean sent me. They were perfect together. Started out somewhat slow and immediately Roy had to go to the side to tie his shoe. Grrrrrrrrr. We got back on the road and he tried to push it right away because we were in the very last group of people due to the shoe tying incident. I let him for a bit then reminded him, once we moved up, that my leg hurt. We slowed down and by mile one my quad felt much better.
Mile two came up almost as quickly as mile one. We saw our first swan flock right after the mile two marker. Wow they are beautiful animals! The Skagit Valley stretched out below us a beautiful frozen patchwork of grasses, plowed fields, and grazing lands stitched together by streams and rivers.
Mile three brought the first big hill. Nothing more fun than a big hill right by a dairy farm! What's a little methane among friends? I asked a herd of cows who cut one, but they just gave me that placid cow looked and wouldn't answer. I swear they were worse than my third period class (all boys...nuff said).
Mile four was very beautiful. Because we'd had a few hills we were up higher and could see the mountains on one side and the valley below. We live in a beautiful area..absolutely beautiful. I swear it was kissed by God.
Mile five was unremarkable. Roy started to slow down. He hasn't been running as much lately due to a nasty bathroom accident on Christmas Eve. He also happened to fall on our run yesterday, but he got up and kept on going! Yay Roy!
Right after the mile six marker we entered a park and a well-groomed wooded trail. It was wonderful! I wish we had such a nice place to run in Marysville. I noticed ahead of me a wonderful elderly lady who I see at a lot of races. I was so glad to see her. She's a HUGE motivation for me. So much, in fact, that I had to pass her. (Hey, I can't help it. I'm competitive.) At this point Roy was falling back and I knew he wouldn't mind if I went on ahead. The trail was so nice and soft that I just booked it and finished mile six in 8:49, coming in really strong. I didn't hit my PR, which was 58 in the Everett to Athens 10k, but I wasn't TOO far behind. I ran alone on that one and didn't have to stop for shoe tying...plus there was only one hill.
What would you do differently?:
Maybe not run quite so hard the day before, but other than that I felt like things went fine. We got freezing rain on the way home, so the weather held up nicely. Yes, it was cold, but I didn't feel over-cold. I'm glad I brought my fuel belt because there was only one water station (despite advertising two) and it was half filled Dixie cups. A man ran back to put his in the garbage (first race?) and ran right into me!
Post race
Warm down:
Waited at finish line to Roy to come in four minutes behind me. He did really well for his first 10k and first "long" run since his accident. We went into the Skagit Valley College Gym and had some broth (great idea), cheese, crackers, and orange slices. Stretched some then changed and had lunch at Applebees.
What limited your ability to perform faster:
Sore quad, running with a partner, cold. I could have pushed it a bit more.
Event comments:
Not bad for my first race of the year! Amenities weren't fancy, but it was only $12 day of race. I would have liked to have had the temps up a bit higher, but hey...it's January in Washington! Whadda ya want?
Running
01:01:00 | 10 kms | 6m 06s min/km
Age Group: 30-39/
Overall: /170
Performance: Good
Course: Beautiful meandering course through the Skagit Valley. We saw such
beauty! The trumpeter swans are migrating so all around us were flocks of beautiful
white birds. We saw cows. We saw horses. We even saw hay, prompting the never-goes-out-of-style
hay joke. We ran by a hayfield and I yelled! "Hay!" and Roy yelled "Hey
hey hey!" and we both yelled "Heyyyyyy". Okay, maybe you had
the be there. There were three hills. I made Roy a little "reward" challenge
for every person he passed on the hill going a safe and consistent pace. He
was able to pass five. Go Roy!
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? No
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3