ity/26362090
I had 3 race strategies:
1) run a long warmup and get everything out of my system *cough* pre-race.
2) walk through the water station.
3) start slow and run a negative split race.
1.6K warmup and 3 bathroom stops later, I barely make it into the corral before the horn. I felt every single one of the 4000 calories (not exaggerating) of greasy Chinese food I ate last night still sitting in my stomach but somehow magically disappeared between the warmup and race start. I was in the 5th row, which would have gotten me killed by Kenyans in a marathon, but since no one lines up properly in a 5K, I didn't even get shoved.
Splits (minutes per km):
6:37
6:51
6:52
6:35
6:01
I haven't seen a 6 as the first number of my pace for a VERY long time! The second half of the course features some mild downhills and then a mild uphill in the last kilometer, so I took it easy until the turnaround, realized I felt TOTALLY AWESOME and then turned on the afterburners as much as I could.
Official chip time: 32:58. My slowest non-preggo 5K? 31:42.
YES I DO HAVE A BUMP!
With Beth (fingersandtoes) and Stacey (brontemom) post race:
