Spring Cross Country Classic Race Report

There's no better way to spend your birthday than racing!  It may have not been the most important race in the world, but it was a fun time, and my family was there to enjoy it with me! 

When did my son get to be so much taller than me?

I was a little worried in the days leading up to the race... I couldn't seem to get going any faster than a 8:30 pace.  I don't know if my body was in a Spring Break mode or what, but, it just wasn't going any faster! 

The race was at a park on the other side of town.  It was a beautiful spring morning... and the men got to go first!  I watched as my son and cute husband ran around the course.  My son wasn't thrilled with his perfomance - he was just over 23 minutes and had run 5Ks much, much faster... but, he wasn't too happy that I made him get out of bed so early to go do this (hey - for the record - he agreed to do this *on his own*!).  Rik was just a tad over 24 minutes and wished he had pushed a little harder to get under the 24 minute mark.  But, I think he deserves a little slack because he has been working really hard to get better at his rock climbing skills.  Remember, he was just on a rock climbing trip a couple of weeks ago!  And we all know that it's hard to stay in shape with one activity when you have a full time job and a family... much less two.

I forgot to wear my watch as well (I remembered when we were about half way to the park!)... Rik let me wear his heartrate monitor... just the watch part.  It had a pace calculator - and that's all I was able to see during the race - the band was too big for me so when I would look down at it, the pace calulator is what I saw.  I was super shocked the first time I looked at it to see me cruising along at a 7:38 pace.  I haven't done that since, well, probably never!  When it was all said and done, I beat my PR... AND accomplished one of my goals for 2011 - getting my 5K time under 24 min.  I came in with 23:49 as my final time!  And then it got better... I thought there were lots of women in front of me... it turns out there were only 18 in front of me... AND I was the first in my age group... which is shocking to me!  Why?  There are two women who run here locally who are always winning everything and qualifing for the Olympic trials, etc... and they just happen to be my age.  Yes really.  The one lady did win the race, but they took her out of the age group placements because of it.  The other lady must have slept in or something.  I won this really cool shirt.



The only people who got shirts were the people that placed in their age groups!



My birthday could have ended right there and I would have been happy.  But I got to go shopping and to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (I'd  never been before).  Oh, and the evening ended with us dying Easter eggs.  How many other people get to dye eggs on their birthdays as well?!