Lobster Roll 5K Recap

On Saturday my older daughter and I ran the Lobster Roll 5K held in our hometown.  This is a local race in it's fourth year and I've ran in all of them thus far, so even though I haven't really felt like doing any races, I wasn't going to miss this one.  I have a streak going!

It's a small local race that raises money for a community track.  I was looking at the plans and noticed that there was a soccer field in the middle of the track, but nothing mentioned about a field hockey field.  Ummm, excuse me?  We also have a field hockey team here people.  I'll go ahead and assume that they meant to put field hockey/soccer field since the space could be used for both.  Or maybe they are keeping the field hockey field in the same spot that it is now.  Whatever.  My kids will likely be graduated by the time they have enough money for this field anyway.

So about 200 people showed up for the race.  It was a perfect day, around 65 and sunny.  There was some humidity but the race was scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m. so that was early enough that the sun wouldn't be too strong then. 

Once again, I had no expectations for this race.  My legs had been sore and tired all week and on Friday I had swam my 2000 yds for the first time in 2 weeks.  Which, by the way, almost did me in on my first 250 set.  Two weeks without swimming and I swear to god I felt like I was learning all over again.  Cough, gag, sputter.  Anyhoo, off track a bit here.  (pun kinda intended)

The race started out and it seemed like I was stuck behind a bunch of slower runners/walkers.  Annoying.   So I did a little sprint to get some space.  Mile 1 7:31.  Not bad.  Mile 2 15:40.  Still pretty good.  The last mile my legs were so sore and tired and there's a little bit of an incline to run up and the girl in front of me stopped to walk so I did too.  WTF.  Seriously?  Walking in a 5k? 

Hangs head in shame.

I walked my lazy ass up that incline (not quite a hill) and then the policeman was stopping traffic at the intersection at the top.  I was damn sure not going to walk through the intersection, so I started running again.  Down the other side of the incline, thankfully.

I probably had about a 1/2 mile to go to the finish and I could hear squeaking coming up behind me.  Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.  Very rhythmically, and it was driving me crazy.  Like what the frig has he got on for sneakers that are squeaking like that.  Then I hear, "What a great handicap!".  I had to turn around.

It's a guy pushing a freaking double stroller.  wtf.  I mutter to myself "great, I'm getting passed by the stroller" and I must have said it pretty loudly because all the spectators laughed.  Nice.  Seriously, guy.  Nice job kicking my ass with the double stroller.  I was a little happier that it wasn't a woman pushing it.  Then I would have been shamed twice in 5 minutes.  Walking and being passed by a woman with a double stroller. 

I finally finished this stupid race in 25:39.  My legs were like spaghetti.  What is up with that?  For a 5k? 

My kiddo finished in 29:46.  Not her best race either.  We were both kinda bummed. 

Then the results were posted and I was second in my age group!  What?  All the fast woman must have stayed home.

But wait!  There's more.  The one woman in my age group who beat me, won third woman overall and was taken out of the age group awards, so I was called up as the winner of my age group!  Ha!  With a time of 25:39.  That's funny stuff right there. 

I got a cool buoy trophy, which I love. 

I do not have pictures of anything since I'm about as good at blogging as I am at running.

My legs are still sore, two days later, so I guess I must have tried hard?  I don't know.  I don't think I've ever been sore after a 5k except maybe my very first one.  Maybe left over from the 50 mile bike ride last Sunday?  I don't know.

Anyway, thanks to 3 friends from home who didn't race--Doreen, Stacy and Karen--I was able to snag a first place age group win.  I hope you won at whatever other race you were racing in.