New Albany Independence Day 5K

Oh the GPS watch.  I love it.  I hate it.  My Suunto is both a "regular" watch and a GPS watch.  I've begun racing with the GPS and mostly it's been great.  However, with a shorter race like a 5K it is too much for me.  I know I have the ability to race in the 6:00s but that doesn't mean I want to see it on my watch.  My last 5K I put a sticker over the watch so I couldn't see what was going on but I could still get my splits post-race.  This 5K I forgot my sticker so I turned my watch so it was on the underside of my wrist.  I could still see the paces, but only a little as it bounced around a lot more.

Anyway....

The whole family participated in the Independence Day 5K.  Dad, Dave, and I did the 5K and Anderson did his first "race."  More on that in another post.

Dave and I started together and he took off like a bandit.  But I was right with him and in the first mile I passed him.  I could still see his shadow right behind me for the majority of the mile.  I hit the first mile at 6:36.  Holy wow!  I couldn't tell, though, if my watch said 6:36 or 6:56 so I just went with it.  In the second mile Dave pulled beside me and pushed me.  I told him I was hurting.  I just kept concentrating on picking up my knees and pushing.  I skipped the only water stop at this point as I knew if I took some I would probably stop.  This was hard.  I hit the second mile around 7:00.  Dave passed me in the last mile and told me that the third place girl was right ahead of me (this turned out incorrect - she was fourth), but right at that moment another girl passed us both.  Oh well.  The last bit of the race is uphill and I was losing my shiz.  I was dry heaving and doing whatever I could to finish fast.  Dave kept pulling further ahead and I kept seeing the pace on my watch get slower and slower.  Oh no!  I was so close to PRing!  And then we were done and I had a HUGE PR!!!

21:02

Holy freakin' wow!  That is 30 seconds faster than my previous 5K PR.  Here's the caveat though.  My GPS read only 3.03 miles.  And Dave's and Dad's read 3.02.  Hmmmm, is that really a PR?  We have decided yes; the PR stands.  If I was wearing just a regular stop watch I would never have known that the course was short.  I've been working hard too and the PR was going to fall this year anyway.  Sure, it's going to be hard to beat, but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

It was a great day for the family.  Dave and I both walked away with 2nd place in our age groups (only the second time Dave has placed in his age group EVER) and my dad got 3rd in his age group.  Anderson got his first medal.  And it was an awesome Fourth of July.

Oh you know, just hanging out with former Olympian and world record holder Butch Reynolds after the awards.

I've had several people ask through Twitter and whatnot...

Yes that is a pie.  Each finisher got an individual-sized apple pie and the age group awards were full size apple pies.  What a sweet prize.