race report - ARR #2

dave decided to do this one with me, so i signed him up. when i signed up for the entire series a month ago, i knew there were a couple 5ks, 1 trail-ish run, and one on south mountain. i didn't really think anything more about it. the first one was road + a little bit of trail along the arroyo. well, when you don't check the race course ahead of time, you get little surprises. like showing up to a total trail race in your good road shoes. oops.

the course was a good 40+ miles away and started at 0630, so we were out of the house by 0515. that wasn't too too bad, except that i really didn't want to get out of bed. had dave not signed up, i totally would've rolled back over and kept on sleeping. we got out there with a buttload of people. once again parking was no issue. this time i actually stretched out my legs prior to the race, as dave did his dynamic stretches too. i was bummed that i was wearing my somewhat pretty road shoes in the dirt, but there wasn't a damn thing i could do about it. dave was a bit peeved too (i believe at me) because he would've worn different shoes too. to my defense, i forwarded the race info days before, so he could've looked it up too. so there.

dave wanted to go out at the front-ish of the pack, and i just didn't give a shit. all i was concerned about was all the dirt clouds and what they'd do to my asthma. we split up and off we went. as i came out of the start shoot, it came to mind that maybe i'd try to do a 3:1 run/walk with this one. i figured the longer i kept running, the better chance i had to beat my previous time. i held 3 min for one round. then i dropped it down to 2:1. by the last half mile or so i was down to 1:1. there was this stupid girl in a camelbak and shorts and sports bra, no shirt. she kept hauling ass passing me, and then i'd come around the bend to find her off in the ditch or bushes gagging/vomiting. and then she'd come screaming past me again. IDIOT. other than this stupid girl, i wasn't really trying to race with anyone. i was trying to hold on to my minutes, as it was already getting pretty toasty. there was only one water stop, as to be expected in a 5k.

luckily for me, i came around the bend and started to hoof it a bit. i knew the finish was close, so i tried to pick it up a bit. dave spotted me and jogged with me a bit. that's when i looked down and saw the course was short - my watch was reading 2.93 at the finish. i was a bit bummed about that, until i realized that it's still a race, and i was still 2 min faster this week than i was 2 weeks ago. whatevs! overall time was 41 min even.