Runner's Den 5 and 5 Feb. 7, 2010 Recap

5 miles at 46:05. Ran pretty fast (for me) in this race and I'm happy with the results. And I'm ecstatic that there are no injuries (knock on wood).

This was the first time I volunteered at a race, and I loved it. I showed up a bit early, got a brief orientation and sat down to do what I have seen countless other volunteers do at race registration. I looked up bibs by last name, explained the timing chip as needed, and wished lots of smiling people well in their race.

I did get confused a couple of times by people getting into my line with last names that weren't A-E, but each time that happened, I sang the ABC song in a loud shrilly voice and they moved away to the correct line.

I ran into fellow blogger/runners Runlaur and Rio. They were hanging out and helping volunteers.

Lauren had just run the Sedona 1/2 M yesterday and was a bit sore, so she only ran in the 5K. Can you believe that?!? Rio ran the 5M and ran fast finishing somewhere around 43 minutes. Great job to both of you!!

I also met Olympian shot putter (4th in the world) Dan Taylor. Dan has a blog called DanTaylorThrows and a web site which has a lot of the same content. I've never been around an olympian before. Dan is a pretty big guy and seemed open to new ideas, but did not appreciate my attempts to engage him in an olympic tickle fight. This photo was taken just before I tried that and whereafter he proceded to "Throw" me an olympic distance. Hey Mr. Big Man Olympian, lighten up!

I wasn't sure that I would run today. My M training plan has me running 10 miles slow. But I did an internal compromise and thought that 5 fast would sort of equate to 10 slow. I'll know whether that was a sound decision in June. I was able to watch the 5K finishers come in and had time to change and hit the porta potty. The race started quickly and I found a rhythm at 9:30. I pretty much stayed there through the race and went under 9 for the last mile. I was huffing and puffing pretty hard, but kept telling myself that it is a race and I need to finish without anything left in the tank. I did and it was fun. This was my first race at this distance, but I pretty much blew away my PB's for 5K (28 and a little bit) and mile splits (all under 9:30 and a strong negative trend). This race is a good time, and volunteering is really fun and inspiring. Thanks Runner's Den!! Enjoy the Super Bowl!