I went from a 5 mile race to coaching my indoor soccer team Saturday morning. The race was hard but the game was exciting. We played against the first place team and managed to pull off a tie with them. We have 2 more games and if all goes well, we could be 1st place champions in this inaugural fustal season and my first time coaching.
According to my training schedule I needed to run 8 miles at a 6:43 per mile pace but I figured if I ran 2 miles as a warm up before the 5 mile race I would be close enough to the scheduled distance. My thoughts for the race was that I'd run at a 6:00 per mile pace and finish around 30 minutes but then I also had a feeling I'd finish around 29:00.
The course had enough ups and downs to make the run tough. I felt I ran at a good hard effort the whole race but I had a little mental struggle after about 3.5 miles. I had to keep telling myself to push through the pain because the first place women was gaining on me. So many people would yell out, "1st place women". It felt like it was me against her.
I couldn't stay for the awards so I grabbed a banana and a bottle of water and drove to the soccer game. I did slip on my running pants and coaching shirt so that no one could tell I came from a 5 mile race.
First place in 45-49 age group Race results.
