Amana Freezer 5K - Amana, Iowa - Saturday, January 23, 2016

It started as a super cold morning, like in the teens for temperatures. However, it was the warmest day of the entire week and there was no wind and the sun was shining.  So it could have been so much worse.  Three of my awesome friends decided to run this race too.  Susan, Amy and Lorna

We left the house around 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Amana just before 9 a.m.  We picked up our packets, warmed up for the race, put our timing chips on our shoes, took lots of pictures, found bathrooms and lined up for the race.

The whistle went off and the race started.

I started out way too fast like around a 6:30-7 minute mile, but seemed to be able to keep up the pace for at least a half mile.  Then I slowed down to an 8:30 mile pace.  That was way more doable.  I don't know why I bolt out of the gate.  I seriously can't go that fast on a treadmill ever so I'm not sure how I do it in a race.

The first mile seemed to pass quickly and I started to shed layers by the end of mile 1.  My hood of my shirt came off first.  Then shortly after that the hood of the mask came off.  The cold air outside didn't seem to bother me and I didn't seem to need the mask over my mouth.  Thank goodness for that.

By mile 1.5 my mask was completely off and I was carrying it, along with the gloves they were off too because my hands were so hot.  By mile 2 my headband that covers my ears was off the ears.  Couldn't believe I warmed up that much.  I was never too hot anywhere else except at my head.  I had slowed down a little in mile 2 and there was a train going by that was squealing a high pitched sound that really bothered me.  I pressed on, but was starting to feel that I really couldn't hold this pace.

My 2nd mile showed that I had slowed a little, my pace for that mile was 9:07.  I knew that I wanted a time that I could be proud of, which is anything below 30 minutes, but really wanted under 28 minutes so I knew then I needed to kick it up a notch and run faster.  As people would come up beside me I would try to run with them.  Finally I found a pace I liked but that was well into mile 2.  This is the thing that really bothers me about a 5K, you don't really find your pace until mile 2 and then it's really too late.    I passed this guy, then he passed me, then I passed him, then we ran together.   He tried to talk to me, but I wasn't able to speak back which proved that I was giving my entire effort.  He pulled ahead and I wasn't able to catch him, but I tried really hard.  The last .12 of a mile I kicked it.  I kicked it hard.  According to my Garmin I was doing a 7:30 pace with tiny spurts of 6:30 pace.  Not bad for the finish of the race, but this proved I could have done a little more in mile 2 or 3.  I need to learn to evenly pace myself and give my all the entire race.

I am super proud of how I did for it was a huge improvement over the last time I ran this course 5 years ago.  In 2011 my time on this course was 29:30  and today 27:30!  Wow 2 whole minutes shaved off 5 years later.  Pretty awesome.

Here are my splits and stats:

Pace for race
Mile 1  8:33
Mile 2  9:07
Mile 3  8:55
.12 of a mile  7:53
Best pace was a 6:07 minute mile pace.  Funny.  Now if only I could hold that.

I placed 108 out of 297 Overall
39 out of 167 Women
11 of 29 in my age group of 40-49

The full results are here if you want to see them:  RESULTS

Here are some pictures from the morning:

Lorna, Amy, Susan and Me.  We were bundled up super thick before the race started.  I shed a couple layers when the race was about to start so I wouldn't go out too warm.

Inside the building where we picked up our packet there were bags with meat in them you could buy for $5.00 if you wanted.  My friends bought me a bag.  I thought the sign on the wall was funny.

Right before the race started.  Left to right:  Me, Susan, Lorna and Amy.

Feet of friends.  Here we are with our timing chips on.

A picture taken of me running.  I'm totally posing!

My Garmin with my time!

Susan almost to the finish line.

Lorna almost to the finish line

Amy!

Amy almost to the finish line.

My race bib and finishing results

Front of shirt

Back of shirt

Stuff in meat bag.

My official results.  I was happy except for the 11th place, but when I found out that was out of 29 I was okay about that.  Just felt I had placed more like 7th.

Food we received after the race.

One last selfie!  We are awesome.