Every Thanksgiving, there's a 5 mile race downtown. I'd never run it before (and never planned to run it, since downtown Austin is nothing but hills and I hate running on hills!), but a good friend of mine recently started running races, and she talked me into running it with her. Another good friend signed up, too, and our kids were all signed up for the kids' race, so it looked like it was going to be a fun morning!
I decided to skip a couple of easy runs that week so I would have 2 days off before the race. I also decided to use the race as my hill workout for that week. :-) Going in to the race, I was hoping to run under 35 minutes. However, that goal quickly went out the window since it was a warm morning, and because of the HILLS! Oh my word, the 3rd hill in particular was so difficult. I don't understand why so many people sign up for the Austin Marathon -- I could hardly do 5 miles on those hills, much less 26.2!
Anyway! My goal was sub 7 minute pace, but I didn't meet my goal. I did, however, finish in 36:39, which got me 9th place in my age group (I think that is my best placement in a big Austin race!) and was also about 30 seconds per mile faster than my pace in the Statesman Capitol 10k in March. :-) Whoo hoo!
My splits were pretty even:
Mile 1: 7:15
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 7:18
Mile 4: 7:08
Mile 5: 7:13
Overall, it was a really fun race, and a great way to start the Thanksgiving holiday! Here are some pictures from the race (Theodore was home with Aunt Anna and Granddaddy):
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