So, I did it!

I PRed at 53 and change at today’s Dolphin Days Race on St. Simon’s Island!

I don’t know my splits because dummy me didn’t realize I could do that on my Garmin until just now – show my pace for each mile, argh!

But I do know my first mile was at 8:26 and my average was 8:31.

Can we say woo hoo (woo hoo)?

Let me hear you say woo hoo (woo hoo!)

This was the smallest run that I have ever participated in.

In fact, it was so small that right before someone shouted, “GO!” they said, “We are missing four people. We’ll wait until they get here before we start.”

I would say there were about 50 participants total. I really loved that about the race. Usually people are pushing and shoving and racing to get to the start, to the front, or you are tripping over the slower people who don’t realize you should start in the back if you aren’t going to go fast.

Today it was just about 50 people mingling around, commenting on the cold weather, waiting for someone to yell START! People knew each other; many run together in a running club that I’m going to look into. I used to fear running with others, but now that my speed has improved I think it may be kind of fun.

The start line was just 10K Start spray painted in blue on the side of the road! 

It was frigid cold but of course once we began I didn’t notice. My headphone batteries went out at mile 3, which I thought might be bad. I do better focusing at speed when I have pumping music going on in my ears, and I didn’t even get to hear the Proclaimers sing, ” I would walk 500 miles! ” before the batteries died.

But it turned out fine. Instead I focused on finding that pace that didn’t totally take my breath away but that made me breathe harder and feel some kind of burn. That on the edge pace. Then I would fall back a little, doing about 8:40 for a half mile, and then push to do 8:20 or less for a stint.

At one point one of the girls I rode with to the race passed me, and we ran elbow and elbow for about a mile before I pushed on during one of my sprints. She came in right behind me by a few seconds and took fourth in her age (the next age category is pretty damn fast!)

Overall woman came in at 46 minutes. 46 ! In awe.

So the pushing hard made me wonder this:

Why do they say that you should be able to hold a conversation while running, and that if you can’t hold one you are running too hard for your ability?

I considered this for a while on the run as my lungs somewhat burned. Seriously, if I were able to talk normally, or hold down any type of conversation, wouldn’t that mean I wasn’t putting as much into it as I could?

When I am running hard, I don’t feel I should be able to talk. I shouldn’t be hyperventilating, of course, or so out of breath I think I might have a heart attack (at least, not until that last half mile to the finish line!)

I suppose some people are better at fast running while talking. I don’t get into it. Maybe that’s the solo runner in me. I would prefer to hear nothing or my music than someone trying to talk to me during fast paces.

If they are talking to me, then I am feeling as though I have to respond, and that’s just not something I really care to do while pushing myself to go further and faster.

And I always think, “If you are talking you aren’t going fast enough.”

Anyhoo . . .

The run was gorgeous, past the marsh. I saw a blue heron right beside us in the marsh and quite a few other birds. There were very few spectators and three drink stands serving water, but it was so cold I could barely drink. Two girls stood on the side of the road bundled up. One saw me coming and yelled, “Are you my mommy?”

I focused on the race during the run, my speed, my heart rate, and the girl wearing black and pink in front of me. I knew when we got close to the finish line I wanted to pass her. That was my goal.

I also had a silver haired guy in front of me for a while that I wanted to keep in sight. He had an easy stride, I would say he was doing about 8:20, so for me it was a little faster than I go but definitely someone on whom I could focus. He came in a minute ahead of me I’d say.

Afterwards the two girls I were running went on to do another 5, as they are training for a marathon. I did two more, but quite honestly I had run so hard for the race that I wasn’t into it and thought it would be a bad idea on my knee. So I ran about 1.75, then hung around and cheered on the kids that were doing the mile fun run (some of them in 6:20!)

I took second place in my age division; first was a minute faster at 52 something. We didn’t stay around for the award ceremony because they still had to do the 5K and we were ready to go by that point. I hear I may get a medal in the mail though – now ain’t that something for someone who started off after baby 2 running 10:30 miles?

My second speed accomplishment in racing was last year’s 5K at 8:20 miles. I am stoked I was able to go only ten seconds slower for an entire six miles during this race, which really proves the work I have been doing on speed has helped.

This makes me wonder how much faster I can go in the future. Can I hit 8 even? What about 7s? Right now it doesn’t seem possible, but if you had told me a few years ago that I’d be in the 8:30 range I would have laughed, rolled my eyes, and said, ” Only in your dreams!”

Hope all of your runs are good runs today!