Amazing new PR

Saturday I ran in a local 5K race. My goal was 23:58. I wanted to break 24 minutes so bad. Well guess what? I did it!

As usual, I ran a very fast half mile. I lined up right behind the front runners and followed them until the excitement subsided a little and I had to force myself to slow down. The course was fairly flat with just two small hills and then downhill to the finish. I ran it last year and finished with a time of 28:40. That was last year.

At the one mile mark, I was still moving along pretty good, but runners were passing me by. It seemed like a lot. I let them go and just kept running. At a mile and a half, a familiar runner pulled up beside me. “Kathy” is a good two minutes better than me in most races so I decided I would keep pace with her for as long as I could. She glanced over at me several times with a rather confused or perhaps annoyed look on her face. “Why is this girl still with me?”

At two and a half miles she started to inch ahead. My legs were feeling a little tired so I let her go. I needed energy for the finish and still had a ways to go. Bye-bye Kathy. Thanks for the ride.

As I neared the bridge that would take me to the finish line, the clock read 23:06. Yes! That tiny bit of energy I had saved for the end kicked in and I flew across the bridge and down the slight hill to the finish line. So did some big strapping dude behind me. Another few steps and he would have beat me, but it was too late. The race was over. My time: 23:27.

Green shirt, blue shorts, heading to the finish line. 23:24 on the clock with just a few steps to go.

On Sunday, the results were posted and guess who was number one for the 40-49 age group? Me! And guess who won women’s masters? Not me, but Kathy, with a time of 23:00. I was only 27 seconds behind her. A slow race for Kathy, but an excellent race for me. Overall, I finished 61 out of 332 runners

As thrilled as I am with this time, it’s going to be a hard one to beat in my next 5K which is in a few weeks. I always try to do just a little bit better in every race. Can I do better than this?

A year ago I was running in the 28s with visions of 26 or less way in the future. But in my next few races, I hit 26.

Can I really run a number that starts with 22? Seems absolutely impossible at the moment, but I’m going to try. And hopefully Kathy will be having a better day so I can ride her coattail just a little bit faster.