Another race complete, another post race "what if" session. I ran the Martha Jefferson 8K in Charlottesville, VA this past Saturday. Like all races, I ran it, enjoyed it, processed it and then tore it apart the next day based on how much pain I was in. I do apologize for the lack of pictures, I'm not a selfie kind of girl, don't think I ever will be!!
The course this year in essence was reversed from last years. Starting at the downtown mall, a 5.08 mile loop (I think the course was a little short) with tons of ups and downs. We ran through a few neighborhoods and then again back to the downtown mall. I enjoyed the ups but get nauseous and nervous on the steep downhills. Nausea, I'm not sure where that is coming from but I've been experiencing it a lot more with down hill running. The nervousness on the down hill running goes back to my IT band injury. I REALLY don't want that to come back!
The race was not chip timed but gun timed, which DID affect my time. My running friend and I started mid pack and ran into quite a bottleneck. My GPS would not pick up so I relied on hers and the callers (called splits at the mile markers) for my times. We were 30 seconds off the start so I adjusted my finish time to reflect my REAL time. I ran a 37:44. My best (I've only run 1 other 8K) and finished 5th in my age group. I complained early this week that MY age group was by far the fastest on the course, the winner of my age group was 32:08.
I shouldn't be disappointed, running in the 7's has been a goal of mine but the ubber competitive person inside of me is thinking that I need to be in the low 7's to place in the running world that I live and compete in. Most 5K's in my area are won by runners in the 18's. I don't see 6's in my future but I do see the low 7's. I'll get there, I just need to learn how to and start doing speed workouts. I've always put them on my training schedule but shy away from them in fear that I will get injured or that they will be too hard. If I had the extra cash sitting around, I'd hire a coach but that's not going to happen.
Sorry for going on and on. Ending thought, if you are in the Cville area, the MJ8K is a GREAT raec. Well organized and fun to run. Not too big and typical Cville running (lots of hills).
Oh hills!!! Eeek! We have lots of them in Maryland too. Nice job on your time! Keep it up :)
ReplyDeleteGreat time! I don't like gun timed races because I don't really feel like they get an accurate measure.
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