OC Fair 5k Recap! Runnin' with Clownz.

Orange County 5k Race Recap:  A dream come true for me.  Please forgive the melodrama of this recap!    This PR means a lot to me.  And gosh dangit, I'm fairly proud of myself.

Woke up at 6:20 and saw it was cloudy and cool.   I do terribly in the heat, so I was pumped to race. 

I met up with Pam, who was running the race as well and we stood in a ridiculously long line to get my bib.  I think the race was a ton bigger than last year's so they weren't prepared for the crowds.  

Pam and I hung out in the starting corrals which was awesome because I tend to get a little psycho nervous before races.  Having her there to talk to definitely helped me not having a nervous breakdown.  We agreed that no matter how many races we do, we still get butterflies at the start.  SO true.  I will never stop nearly peeing on myself out of nerves in the corral.  

The race was a bit delayed due to the crappy logistics, but it didn't really bother me.  More time to procrastinate actually racing!  

Finally...we were OFF!

Start:   For the first time in the history of the world I went out at the pace I wanted to.   Possibly due to getting "unwarmedup" from standing the corral so long, but I'll take it.   

Self Talk: "Strong but relaxed...strong but relaxed..."

First Mile: 6:38. 

The course started curving in and out of random exhibits.  It was pretty cool, actually.  I felt like I was in a video game and some crazy clowns would come out of the booths and start chasing me.  

I was keeping pace with a long haired dude running barefoot.  Normally I like hippies, but this guy kept on boxing me out every time there was a curve.  No idea if it was on purpose or not (probably not), but I got frustrated at some point and muttered "seriously dude?" after trying to pass for the 1000x time.  Then I felt bad and rude.  I doubt he was trying to be a jerk, but racing sometimes brings out a weird aggressive side of me.  

Self talk:  "Relaxed...keep pushing!  No slowing down from that first mile!"

Mile 1.5:  Water station.  I take water, throw it on myself and then throw the cup on the ground.  Then I see a trash can.  For the second time in a couple minutes, I felt rude.

Mile 2: 13:20  (6:42 second mile)

Self Talk:  "You're never going to PR...I can feel you slowing down...just admit you suck at running" 

Then:  "Stop doing this to yourself, just focus...".  

Mile 2.5:  

Self Talk:  "Only about 4 more minutes to go.  You can run for 4 minutes.  That's less than 1000 meters.  You CAN run 1000 meters, can't you?"

I ridiculously started quoting Pre in my head:  "To give less than your best is to sacrifice the gift, to give less than your best is to sacrifice the gift..."

Mile 3:  20:03.  "Go Go GO!!"

How I felt. 

Final Time: 20:39, 4th woman.  

So happy!  

Pam also kicked some booty coming in just a hair after me and PRing as 5th woman.  We didn't run the race together, but it was awesome having her there!  She is ridiculously nice and supportive!    

Post race, I decided to see if I won any sort of age group prize.  

After asking a couple volunteers about prizes who gave me confused looks and asked "You got a race t-shirt, right?", I figured it was a lost cause.  :). 

Last Thoughts: I don't want to over dramatize this race, because I fully realize that running a mid-20s 5k, is not really that impressive.  I didn't set any records or save any lives.  At the same time, I've been running for 14 years and have never broken 21.  And it's always bugged me.  And I finally did it.  

So this race feels almost as good as a BQ to me.    

I celebrated by getting a mini donut from Starbucks and trying on everything in the store at the local Lululemon.   It was awesome.