Running Notes

Category Running
As mentioned in my last post, I got a last minute entry into the Margaritas Mexican Fiesta 5K. Basically, my mother-in-law registered for the race and then, the night before decided not to run and gave me her number. (To be clear, she has breathing issues, she didn't just cop out). So that is how I happened to be registered for a race that I didn't know about until the night before. I was registered as a woman 50 to 59 years old. (To be clear again, I am NOT 59).

This was the first running of the Margaritas Mexican Fiesta 5K. It seemed like it would be fun. Margaritas is a local Mexican restuarant. The race was sponsored by the restaurant and Corona. Free beer and mexican food after the race - who could ask for anything more?

I got there WAY too early. There were only 450 people registered for the race, with plenty of parking. Oh well. I saw a friend that I hadn't seen since the Great Bay Half Marathon, so we chatted a bit before the start.

Before the race started, I hadn't yet decided if I was going to try and run fast, or just take it easy. I haven't exactly been training. I only ran twice this week. My next race wasn't scheduled until the end of May. The race started and a huge group of people started doing some goofy take on Army chants. You know where one guy says something, and the other people echo want he said. Only they were REALLY annoying. I decided I would try and run fast, if only to get past them. Which of course proved difficult since they were running side-by-side, at least 10 people across. Did I mention the fact that the race was small? As a result, they didn't close off any of the roads, and we ran in the bicycle lane most of the way, so only room for one to two runners side-by-side.

Once I got going fast enough to pass them, I figured, what the heck? I'll keep going. It was pretty much a slow gradual rise to the halfway point and then a couple of quick downhills to get back to the starting point. I completed the first mile in 8:56, which is pretty fast for me. The second mile I slowed down to 9:12. I got annoyed with myself (and this woman who ran so close to me, I thought she was drafting) that I stepped it up for the last mile and ran it in 8:27.

So I finished the 5K in 27:50 according to the clock time (no chip time this race). A PR for me! Yippee! I placed 210/433. Again, for me, not too bad.

A personal record AND a free Corona and Mexican food. Could this day get any better? :)