Weather: low 60s, humid, light wind

This was the second race in a row that I had to do race-day registration. So my day started earlier than needed, as I had to allow time to find the registration tent and get registered. My husband came along this time, as we had friends running the race. (I've let him stay home to sleep for some of the races I've done, as I know races can be really boring to watch especially if the only times you can see your runner are the start and finish).

We got to Silver Lake around 8, and I got registered pretty quickly. I hadn't expected to get a shirt as they were limited to a certain number of registrants. With this being a fundraiser for a memorial fund, and having separate run and walk events, I figured there would be a lot of people. They didn't have the size I wanted, but since I hadn't even thought I would get a shirt it's okay. We then had some time to kill, so we went and sat in the car. We saw one of my husband's co-workers, who was going to be running with his daughter.

I left for my warm-up around 8:30. I ran a little over a mile, throwing in 3 or 4 short strides. My legs felt okay, aside from slight tightness in my left hamstring. After my warm-up, I stretched and then decided we should head over to the actual start line. That turned out to be a good idea, as they were giving instructions and it appeared the start would be soon. So I handed over my track pants and long sleeve shirt to my husband and went to find a spot.

Mile 1: I positioned my self semi-near the front, but behind a large group of guys. When the gun went off, I took off kind of fast. There were no women with me, just a lot of guys and I wondered if I had made a mistake going out as fast as I had. But I knew I wanted to feel like I was pushing it, and I did. We ran half around the lake, with not many position changes taking place. I could tell there weren't any women ahead of me, but had no idea where the ones behind me were. We passed by a cone with a "1" on it, but I think it was a little too early to be the actual mile mark. Luckily I had worn my GPS so I could get accurate splits.

Mile 2: We continued around the lake, passing by the finish line. We also ran by my husband, who held up his index finger to let me know that I was the first woman. I called out to him "how far back?" wanting to know where the second woman was, but he couldn't tell. I kept trying to keep up my pace as we circled back towards the start line. There was a water stop in this mile, but I skipped it as I didn't need it.

Mile 3: I tried to pick up my pace more this mile, in part to finish strong but also because I was afraid of being "caught" by another woman. When we would go around turns, I tried to glance back to see if anyone was catching up. I couldn't see anyone, but started picking it up even more as there was only a half mile left. With a quarter-mile to go, I started pushing even more knowing the end was near. Once I could see it, I tried to kick in as hard as possible wanting to get in under 21:42 (7 mpm pace). I wasn't happy to see a photographer, as I think my shorts were creeping up, but oh well.

After getting out of the chute, I walked over to my husband who had my sweats and water bottle. He knew I was pleased with my finish and I even said "that was awesome!" I haven't run a <7:00 mile in 7 years, so that felt really good. I'm also now within a minute (53 seconds, to be precise) of my 5K PR, and I haven't been doing speedwork. So I feel a lot better about my post-marathon injury running right now.

We saw two of our friends come in, and then I went to do a short cool-down. To my great joy, my leg didn't start hurting like it did when I cooled down from the 4 mile race 2 weeks ago. While I was cooling down, our other friend finished. I stretched while we talked, and then we headed over to the pavilion for the awards and food.

This race gets 5 stars for its food and prizes. They had bottles of water at the finish, but the pavilion (located more towards the start than finish, so a short walk away) had water, soda, juice, Panera bagels, Perkins cookies, danishes, apples, bananas and maybe something else. They also had a place where you could sign up for door prizes, which were really good prizes. The ones I can remember were Sonicare toothbrushes, teeth whitening sessions (Dr. Murray is our dentist, hence the dental care prizes), a spa pedicure, gift certificates to a local bar/restaurant, a Kwik-Trip gift card, a free oil change, and some chiropractic sessions/packages. There were at least two of each prize, so a lot of people got stuff. I didn't win a door prize (I really wanted a couple of those), but I did get a nice trophy for winning the women's division.

Mile 1 | 7:00
Mile 2 | 7:09 | 14:09
Mile 3 | 6:54 | 21:04

Watch Time = 21:36
Official Time = 21:39