I have been so nervous about this race all week because it’s my big tune-up for Lehigh Valley.  With all my improvements over the last 4 months, I was starting to get scared about where I was really at, thinking I was getting greedy now and overreaching.  So between yesterday and this morning, I gave myself a pass.   I decided that if this race showed I was capable of 1:37 for the Half (as opposed to the, gulp, 1:35:30 I’m currently targeting), then so be it, it’d still be eons better than the 1:43 I wrote on the Half application when I signed up last Fall.

I get to the race, which starts, as most do around here, at the Museum.  It was a huge affair with a 5K, a 10K and a walk, so there was a band and tents all over the place.   The 10k started at 10:20.

The one great thing about this race is that it was chip-timed, which I haven’t had since November at the Bridge race, so I was feeling good about that.  Also, all my races in March were between 25 and 39 degrees, so to wear shorts and a tank was fabu.  Weather was 61 degrees, wind 8mpw, gusts to 13.

So we line up and some idiot kids from some school team line up at the very front, and of course, within a couple minutes out, all of them would end up dying and dropping off.  Also, as we’re lining up, I see one woman who looks extremely fit and my age (damn!), she lines up right behind the kids, I’m a few rows back but I’m already “eh, she’ll beat me.”  And when the gun went off, she took such a lead, I was hoping she’d fade eventually but was happy to stick with my game plan (even splits, 6:56s if I could swing it) and let her go.

The first couple miles were so much better than my 10k on March 1.  That day, my legs got tired early on and it was a struggle to keep on pace.  Today, I was feeling pretty steady, not too much hurtin’ at this point, which I was so happy about, though not taking anything for granted.

I was surprised how few people were in front of me and two girls ahead of me who looked strong fell back before mile 3.  Once I hit the turnaround, I realized I was closing the gap between the fit woman.  It was at this point someone passed me going the other way and yelled out “You’re third woman, woohoo!”  which I thought was just so cool.

The next section was me on the tail of Fit Woman, closing the gap.  I was feeling the race at this point so I knew I couldn’t start trying to overtake her till the end or I’d be screwed, though with 1 mile to go, I did get next to her but she wasn’t having any of it.  At the end, I tried to outkick her but ended up right behind till the bitter end.  My time?  42:40.   Couldn’t believe it.

We hugged each other and thanked one another for a great race.  Afterwards, the other two girls who had dropped off earlier chatted with me for a while, as did a guy I’ve seen at a lot at races around here.   Then I finally met this cool female runner I always see in the park; 68 years old and 8 months out of open heart surgery, so we sat on the museum steps talking until the awards were called.

Here’s where it gets interesting.  I forgot about the whole chip-timing thing, so when the award ceremony finally happened, I was shocked to find out I was actually 2nd Female OA, not third!  (16th finisher out of 406)  Turns out I beat Fit Woman by 1 second!  I just looked her up on Athlinks and she’s someone I never would have thought I’d be able to beat, so this is me all flabbergasted.

Back to the ceremony, I got my 1st in AG medal (alas, no OA awards other than first man/woman) and was told to pose with Heart Man (a person in a Heart suit who was actually a woman), so hopefully I’ll have a goofy picture to post later.  Other than that, I got more than my allotment of no-name granola bars and a free chapstick.   A bountiful day and then some.

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