Harbor Fest 5K Race Report

This past weekend was a another weekend jam-packed with stuff to do.  My little field hockey team had two wins on a beautiful Saturday morning.  I was so proud of them and their comeback at the end.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them because I was coaching and my older daughter was too lazy to go back to the car to get the camera....  Next weekend we have another game so I'm getting some photos then if it kills me.

Directly after the game I had a long overdue hair appointment.  I had done nothing with my hair since April.  No color, no cut.  Nothing.  It was ratty, dry and yuck.  Here is what happens when you care about your appearance.

No rats.  No dry ends.  No grays.  No fake blonde.  Now I'm a fake brunette.  It's a bit darker than my regular color.  Although I'm not even sure what my regular color would be now.  I started highlighting my hair in 1990....  

A friend of my had commented on my facebook when I posted the new pic:  #brownisfaster.  Loved it!  Keep reading to see how that came to be true!

Sunday was the Harbor Fest 5K, a local race set up to benefit the Dempsey Cancer Center in Lewiston, ME.  Yes, as in Patrick Dempsey.  It is a center he started when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  He also hosts the Dempsey Challenge in a couple of weeks which is another fundraiser for that center and that was where all the proceeds of this race would be going to.  His sister was there to start the race and she passed along how pleased Patrick was that the community could pull together this race in just a a few short months.  

I decided to run it that morning because it worked out with our kid's sports schedules.  Start time was at 10 and it was about a mile and a half from my house, which meant I did not have to get up early at all.  #win!  I had zero expectations for this race, but would really wanted to beat my PR of 24:01.  I wasn't sure that I could, you know, you can only improve so much and then that's it.  I keep wondering when that time will come.  

The race course was a bit hilly and the last half was really pretty as it went along side of a pond.  I guess we messed a bunch of people up in the morning though when they closed off one lane of the main road in and out of town while we ran about 3/4 of mile down it.  Oops.  

I didn't wear a Garmin or any music as is my usual routine.  I have found that I do much better at the short races without any distractions.  Just run at whatever pace my body feels is comfortable.  Which 90% of the time is faster than I think I can.

me in the bright yellow top and visor

The woman with the short hair and blue shirt in the front of that picture is fast.  I see her in all the local races and she is always ahead of me.  I thought I might be able to keep up with her.  I tried to keep her in my sight the whole race.  I did manage to do that, but I couldn't beat her.  

I had no idea what my time was or how I was doing.  I just kept running and telling myself to go.  I came around the corner near the finish and it was then that I could see the clock.  It said 23:01!  WTF!  I said out loud, Shit is that the time?  And then sprinted and shouted the last little bit.  

this is me saying, holy shit! Is that the time?  Is that right?

that is a happy face.  really.

#brownisfaster!

Official time 23:18.  Yay me!  Can I just say that that is a 7:31 pace!  2/25 in my age group.  The winner of my age group took it in 20:21.  what the?  

I am sore today.  I think that racing shorter distances fast is harder on my body than running longer distances slower.  Does that make sense?  I think it might even be harder physically where the longer distances take more out of you mentally.  But that's just me.

On a side note, I cannot even fathom a marathon at a 4:42 mile.  I cannot even imagine running a lone mile at that pace, let alone 26.2.  He is running, on average, 13 mph.  THIRTEEN MILES PER HOUR!  That's faster than most people can bike.  And he's averaging that..  which means that sometimes he's running faster than that.    Omg, that is too much for my brain to compute.  (Speaking of the world record being broken at the Berlin Marathon by Wilson Kipsang, in case you didn't know.)

Back to me now.  

So I am faster than I thought I was.  Which makes me wonder how long this can go on.  When does it end?  When do I become slower?  I hope it's not too soon, because this is really quite fun.  

My son had soccer that afternoon so it was a quick trip home to shower and then head back out again.  I'll leave you with a few photos of him.  Oh, and they won too!  A good day was had by everyone!

right handed but left footed!  nice form kiddo!

Have you ever changed your hair color drastically?

When did you start to slow down?  Or hasn't it happened yet?