First Race of 2008! 5 mile Run

I woke up at 5:30 this morning. As predicted, I was in bed by 8:30pm (nerd!). So i made breakfast and heard the weatherman speak of the frigid temps outside- 27!! Hopefully it would warm up by the 10am race start. An hour before, I picked up my brother at his friends' house, as I knew how long it would take him to get in the car, and we headed over to the race. It was still in the low 30s with pretty heavy winds. We did a little warm up and then were off racing. My legs felt good, I thought they would feel a bit stiff, and my HR was staying right where it was supposed to, 160-175, race pace but not an all out effort. I lost track of mile splits, only to clock the first one at 6:20.

I had no expectations of time for this run, since other than track workout times, I'm pretty unsure about my run fitness since Ironman. One thing I do know is my asthma kicks in heavily in cold temperatures (it was the worst when I played ice hockey in elementary school) so breathing got quite wheezy by mile 2. Anyway, per coach's orders, I was to stay in that zone until the last mile and then let it go to above race pace. At the last mile, I picked it up, or at least I think I did, but my HR wouldn't get above 176. I held onto that effort, the hardest I could go for that moment, and crossed the line in 33:49.

I'm pleased with that time, as I can only continue to gain speed for when the season arrives. I managed to win my age group and get 5th female. My brother did awesome- running a 39:23, 2nd in his age group ;).

We stuck around for the awards and to chat with friends, and then went home to shower and eat some good lunch. Now we just returned from the movies- National Treasure: Book of Secrets- entertaining yet exageratingly uncanny, and will for sure be hitting the sack early again.