Reggae Run race report

Ault park was packed with people for the 15th reggae run. The weather was nice - not too hot and not too cold. My husband dropped me up at the bottom of the hill and I ran up to get a warmup in. When we lined up, I stood in the front of the pack, because I wanted to go out hard. When we started, there was a lot of jockeying for position on those narrow streets, and the cars parked along the side didn't make it any easier.

The first half of the race went well - the crowd thinned out and it was mostly downhill. After marathon training, the water stop at mile 1.5 came really quickly. For me, that was a good thing - I was thirsty at that time. But with the water stop came the uphill climb to the finish. When I say uphill, I mean UP HILL! The second half of the course was soooo steep. I'm not the best at hills, even though I train on them every day - I don't do them fast. AT ALL. I just concentrated on getting to the top running, not walking (I mean, it was a 5K, so I shouldn't have walked anyway)

Well, about midway through the hill I looked at my watch and it said 23:11, so I thought I was in good shape to finish where I wanted too. But then, I looked forward at that crazy hill and it was getting steeper. I kept going, trying to stay strong and finish strong.

I finally finished in 28:37, which is 9:32 pace. On a flat course, I think I could have gone about 2-3 minutes faster, but I am OK with that time. It was a very challenging course for my first 5K. I will look for a flatter one to challenge my sprinting skills and speed. I'm considering yesterday's a "Hill workout" because that's what it was.

The party afterward was GREAT time, with lots of adult beverages. We'll see how my 12 miler goes this morning after all that beer yesterday.