ESU Twilight 5000

Last weekend (after the pooch plunge) I ran in a little 5K in town. It was sponsored by the Emporia State University (ESU) Cross-Country team as kind of a fundraiser to start their season. So they organized it and worked the event. This was the first Annual (I love it when things are the first annual!) Twilight 5000. There were 49 runners and the course was 3.1 miles (a.k.a-5K) around Emporia at 7:45pm in the evening (Hence the twilight in the name). The cool thing about the course was that is was kind of in my back yard. It started at the mall (about 2 blocks from our house) and ran on a lot of the streets I run on everday, then at the end it came thru the park and actually passed right by our house! I was excited about this so I made a sign to put out in our front yard. I dont know if you can tell from the picture but I made the sign entirely out of old Gatorade and other sports drink bottle caps. It was pretty big it completely filled 4 pieces of posterboard. Oh and in case you are asking, "did Will run in it too?" No he did not. He ran 18 miles that morning as part of his marathon training and he wasn't sure he could walk to the start line to watch me much less run in the event. (seems like kind of a lame excuse to me?!) Here is a picture Will shot at the start of the race.

My goal for this race was 24 mintues. Which would put me just under a 8 minute mile pace and would break my old 5K PR of 24:17. So we took off and immediately I felt like there was a lot of people ahead of me or passing me. This can be quite tuff on you mentally when you are being passed and never doing any passing. Finally towards the end I passed this really cute tan high school girl only wearing a hot pink sports bra and short shorts, this gave me a really big confidence boost to leave her in the dust! The course was pretty hilly with some long uphill sections. As I got towards the end I as really huffing and puffing and thinking these short races are just not really for me I need to stick with the long ones where slow and steady wins the race. As I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch and saw 25.21 for my time. I was so mad, and the only person I had to be mad at was myself! Seriously I was off my goal by more than a minute...what was I doing out there...walking! I was ready to just walk home and try to forget it all. Will came over to tell me good job and I think I just glared at him (sorry Will- I had a lot of adrenaline pumping thru my veins!) As I sat and cooled off and looked around I realized that all the people who had finished looked really young and fit...and I saw other people still finishing...I actually kinda thought I was the neer the very end cuz when I would look back I didn't see anyone. Well after I had some more time to cool down I knew I had done the best I could do that day and not everyday is a great running day. We went to the awards ceremony and it turned out I got first in my age group (yea another t-shirt). Turns out I had been beaten by a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds oh and one 48 year old lady that was in really good shape. I am still a little disappointed in my own personel time but winning my age division helps! Here is a link to the complete results: http://www.emporia.edu/athletics/crosscountry/news/09ESUXCtwilight5kresults.htm

I finished 28th over all and 7th for the women. When I entered my time in the computer it averaged out to a 8:11 minute mile pace which I guess I can live with since my normal running pace is about a 9:30.

Look out 48 year old lady...I'll be training and next year I'll be back!