Freihofer's race recap

Today I ran the Freihofer's Run for Women.
Let me tell you. It was a scorcher!

I met up with Cassasndra, Courtney and Jen M., and we drove together. I have a secret parking spot that is easy in, easy out. So we were parked in a matter of minutes and just had to walk up the hill to the start area.

We met up with some other of our "Strong Running Mama" group and posed for a picture.

Some of the Strong Running Mamas

Security was a bit different this year, so we had to make our way down the other set of stairs and line up. My bib was yellow. Basically, the way it works is that all runners line up by bib color, and the color is the estimated time that you expect to finish. So, obviously the elites are in the front. Then there is a section for the non-elites that are super fast. Then yellow. Then it works its way down from there. So, I was in the front of the yellow section and I could actually see the elites from my starting point.

The horn blew, and we were off. And it was hot. Damn hot. About half a mile in, I was feeling it. And I felt like I was slogging along. I hit the one mile mark at around 8:40 pace. I was actually surprised.  I thought I was going way slower than that. I came upon the first water stop and drank some water and then poured the rest over my head. I kept going. But, it was hot. I decided to take a walk break to catch my breath. I walked for about 30 seconds and then was back at it.

And did I mention that it was hot? Friggin' hot.

I took two more walk breaks between mile 2 and 3. I needed a breather and I decided that I needed to be smart in this heat. No race was worth getting heat stroke.

As I came down the final stretch, I have to say that the finish line looked so very far away. I kept going and made the final push the last 1/4 mile. It was tough. I crossed the finish line at 27:21.

Not a PR. But not horrible either. I was actually pleasantly surprised. The way I was running, I felt like there was no way I was going to come in under 30 minutes.

Here are the stats:
Time: 27:21
I came in 653 out of 4241 runners.
I was 67th out of 461 runners in my age group.
Overall pace: 8:48.

Right now, there are no more races on the calendar until my half marathon in October. I plan to ramp up my running and get some speedwork under my belt.  My big goal for October is to run the half in under two hours. In order to meet that goal, I am going to really need to train hard.