Today marks a full year after my first race, the Clean Air 5K – 1500 runners and chip timing (yay!). So my friend Lara and I returned to the scene of the crime, though this time with a little more sass to our strides.

Goal-wise, I didn’t make the sub-23 I’ve been hankering for, but landed a 23:06 (a 23 second PR), so I’m chuffed to the nth degree. Hell, what’s 7 seconds anyway?

Nick was there on his bike snapping photos all over the place, thank you thank you thank you Nick!!! So I have him to thank for some of the snazzy new pics around here.

Before And After

I’ve been waiting for a year to have a comparison photo and today is the day. Just so you know, I’ve never shown anyone the pictures from the first race because I looked like a nasty troll in all of them.

Of course, I still have stuff to work on – overstriding apparently one of them (photos tell all) – but definitely an improvement over the I’m-dying-and-a-troll photo. The shot from today is at the finishing kick.

Along with the better finish time, a nice plus was that it was my least uncomfortable 5K so far. It still hurt, they always do and always will, but it wasn’t as killer. One help was that after the warmup, I spent some time clenching and unclenching my arms to get rid of that awful arm tension that’s been haunting me the last couple races. I also felt like my gasping quotient has gone down.

An important confirmation I got from this race is that I must do a 5K after Broad St. without my Garmin. It’s time I see what racing nekkid is like and work by feel. I’m going to have to figure out how to use that Ironman watch I own but never used (hey, there’s a limit to how nekkid I’m willing to go).

Cool thing #1: I saw fellow RW forumite, Joe as he was announced for first place team (they got great prizes, too!!). He was on The Philly Runners Club team, so Kev, who runs that club (and the guy that put on the Mile trial a few posts down) was there too. Joe did a fantastic PR with sub-19 and I had no idea Kev as also an 18 minute man! Gotta love fast guys!

Cool thing #2: Yesterday, while picking up packets at the running store, I tried on some DS Trainers to have a comparison to the Elixirs. The sales guy was this really quiet, sweet, unassuming guy who had sold me some shoes before. I asked him if he would be doing this race and he smiled saying, “yeah, I guess so”.

So it’s the middle of the race and the first guy comes blasting down the turnaround with a big lead on the second guy. And it was, you guessed it, the shoe guy! It was funny to see him afterwards and say congrats. Poor kid, his prize was a $100 gift certificate to the store where he works, lol.

The mayor spoke at the awards ceremony and had a small entourage with him, then the local famous bow-tied tv weather guy, Hurricane Schwartz, announced the main winners, sans bow-tie, and then the medals were given out.

I got 2nd Place in 45-49, Lara got 3rd in 35-39. The medals are amazing, actually. It’s a handcrafted wrought iron leaf hanging from handmade yarn, heavy and beautiful! I had to include a photo:

Also, if you read the previous post where I mention that by not getting our goody bags yesterday, we’d have to hunt for our “mini Clif bar/lip balm/key ring I think what is this?/anti-fungal sample” bounty. About that “key ring I think what is this?”…

I have found that in most goody bags for runners, there is something you have no idea what it is. If you’re lucky, you’ll see someone handing them out at the next expo and find that it’s something you’re supposed to attach to your wrist or something.

Anyway, the award for “what the hell is it?” this year goes to Septa, our public transportation system. They gave out really good stuff including a pedometer, and a couple things that weren’t immediately identifiable but were eventually (a bus shaped squish toy and a luggage tag) but one of the things we were not able to identify without asking was this 5″ long plastic hinged thing. Can you tell what it is?

It’s a giant paper clip. Oh right… (nodding weakly)

This report wouldn’t be thorough without a review of my Elixirs. They were fantabulous right out of the box! So much so, that after the race, Lara and I came back here for some chatting, then went out again for 7 easy (at 11:30a.m. on the first 85 degree day this year…smart girls), me still in my new speedy kicks. Mizuno rules!

Here’s the obligatory chick pic with me and Lara, before we started stealing stuff off every table of freebies we could find. I have to say, we had so much fun today, racing, hanging out, going for that second sweaty run, coming back to eat candy…all in all, a lovely day.

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