Ted E Bear Hollow 5K! Lots of pics followed by race report

TED E BEAR Hollow 5K August 25, 2012

Time-24:31, 4/18 in my age group, 40/194 overall

^Above picture before the race started. Love to see people milling about pre-race, gets me all sorts of excited to fly past at least 3% of them once the gun goes off.

^Above picture is my buddy Kathleen and I pre-race. We've been friends for over 10 years but anymore, the only time we get to see each other is at the occasional race!

^Above picture is the start line. I am at this time, mentally picking out the 2-5 people that I am sure I can pass in the next 20 minutes...that girl in the green shorts is goin' DOWN, people.

^Finishline pictures courtesy of the awesome Joseph Drugmand! He is at most of the races I do snapping awesome pictures and capturing memories for all of us. 

^Receiving my medal! Placed 3rd in my age group (I was actually 4th but one of the girls who placed in the top 3 overall females was in my age group so I got lucky)  =)

^Photo courtesy of Joseph Drugmand.  The gal on the left got 2nd in our age group. Her and I actually went to highschool together-AND she's pregnant with baby #5!  Kickin' job, Becky!

^ Bunch of awesome ladies. The middle 2 also live in the town I grew up in, which is pretty small, which automatically makes them my best friends now.  We ALL medaled. Representin' P-town like the bosses we are!

^Random dog at our race but SERIOUSLY. How CUTE is that face?  I would have tried to sneak him home in my back pocket if he was bout 80#'s smaller....

Proud of my time at this race!  My watch said 24:31 at the finishline BUT it also said 2.98 miles. They SAID it was a certified course, so maybe my watch was just being a clown, who knows. But my avg pace was 8:14 which is pretty rockin' for this slow poke!

Incase you havent been a follower of this blog from the get-go (and if you haven't, what's wrong with you?! Actually I dont even know if I've HAD this blog that long, so you're forgiven), Ted E Bear Hollow was the first 5K I ever ran back in August 2010 after I had been running for an ENTIRE 7 weeks. Yep. I was ready to kill it.  Ran that one in 32:19, then ran it again the following year in 27:xx (coming off an injured knee) and then this year at 24:31 (OFFICIAL results were 24:54 which baffles me as my watch said 24:31 and I started and stopped RIGHT on the mat-but whatev).  It is a favorite 5K of mine and I'll continue to run it as long at they let me! =)

It was supposed to be slightly chilly and drizzly this morning. We got the EVER so slightly chilly but the drizzly came in at about 20 minutes into the race for about 24.8 seconds and that was it-but it was a welcome relief!  The last 10 minutes of the race, I felt like my face was ON FIRE and would melt off my head at any moment! I have never experienced that in a race. I remember trying to fan it off with my hand. Yeah. Not too successful.

The last 4 minutes were TERRIBLY tough. But I got thru them. Finishline was about 20 feet after a SHARP turn which was kind of awkward as you couldnt put your boosters on the last .10 of the race (or for me, the last .03 of the race)  =)

Next race for me is a unique point-to-point race here in Omaha this Saturday called 'Peak to Peak'. It is a 10 miler along a really flat paved trail here that runs from a store in Belleuve to a store in Omaha.  This is the first year I've done it so I'm excited about it AND it looks like the weather will be PERFECT for racing Saturday morning (around 55* at start time)!  I MUCH prefer cold weather for races, than blazin' temps, dont you?  =)