Saturday, September 25, 2010

Moon Valley Grasshopper Bridge 5K Race Report


Goal: Fun and Healthy and Sub-30.

Garmin: 28:22
Official Chip: 28:19 PR!!







Just edged out this slowpoke in light blue
Made my goals, and had to work pretty hard to get there. The air was hotter than I expected and the sun was Arizona all the way, so that sapped my energy quite a bit. Got up early and we made our way down to the start area. Got all set up with bib and chip and then off to porta-potty. The line stretched down to Tucson and the sides of the 4 porta-potties were actually bulging with waste-product. I made my way into the desert to contribute to the water table and then ran my 1/4 mile warm up. Not sure if it warmed me up, but my HR was up and I felt good. Had a few sips of H2O and a Tri-berry GU. A little more water, the preliminary announcements and Star Spangled Banner, and we were off. I had lined up very near the front to be away from the walkers, and


Spit your Skoal juice in here boy!
found myself swept into a speed that was not in my plan.
First mile: 8:41 and I was feeling it. A bit too fast.
Second mile felt groovy. My cardio was up for sure, but form and output were fine, so I was going with it. Got to the 2 mile marker, had a sip of water, began to choke a bit and walked for 20 yards or so while the crowd sang Aqualung.
Mile Two: 8:46 fading a little??
My daddy is a fast runner
Got into mile 3 and was starting to do the embarrassing heavy breathing.

Got to the grass section at 2.5 and had to walk again. ugghhh. But I was going tunnel vision and was thinking that it would be tough for the EMT's to resuscitate me, so I saved you taxpayers a little extra today. Got back into my glide and finished strong with nothing left in the tank.
Mile 3: 9:37, last .16 8:06. Coulda-woulda-shoulda. What if I just slowed down instead of walking in mile 3? What if it were a bit cooler? What if I didn't take water? What if I didn't spend my early 20's sitting on a couch eating Pizza Hut, watching Hong Kong Fooey and doing bong hits?

Ahhhhh, now some nice coffee and a weekend to relax, 'cept for my seven miler tomorrow. September has been good for running. I wonder if I could go sub 26??????

9 comments:

Adrienne said...

Nice! You can totally do a sub 26. Better get on that :)

Mel said...

...& you rocked those compression shorts!! Awesome job...sub 26?! Heck yeah!!

The Boring Runner said...

Way to rock it Jeff. Sometimes the battle makes getting the goal all the better.

I'm really bummed that I wasn't able to be there to see you finish, but it looks like you had a great cheering section. You'll just have to see me in my cheerleader outfit some other time.

Q said...

Ewww about the potties! And don't ever regret any fun you had in your early twenties.

Julie said...

Woo hoo! There is nothing like PR:) Awesome job!

Anonymous said...

Lucky you- you got to run in/on/near some grass!

Awesome job on the PR. You've been working hard and it shows!

Whitney said...

Congrats on the PR!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey now - rock on with that PR!

Unknown said...

Good race report, the pictures are great and look like that the race is tough. Thanks for sharing us detailed race report like this.



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