Race Result

Racer:	Cynthia Couture
Race:	Quantico Turkey Trot 5 Miler
Date:	Saturday, November 19, 2005
Location:	Quantico, VA
Race Type:	Run - 5 Mile / 8 km
Age Group:	Female 30 - 34
Time:	0:52:55
Overall Place:	343 / 475
Age Group Place:	32 / 43

Race Report:

After reading so many race reports on the MCM and IronMans recently, my race seems so...short. But it's the first road race I've done in 20 years and it was great!

Yes, 11/19, my first road race in 20+ years, 5 miles down at Quantico Marine Base for their T-Day festivities.

The short version: Goal of 55 minutes for 5 miles, having averaged 57:32 for all 5 mile runs up to this point. A reasonable goal that would still require a decent push on my part.
Unofficial time (no chip times posted yet): 52:54!!!!!!! - over 4 minutes off my best 5 mile time to date, a pace of 10m35s. Sure, it sucks for a decent runner, but for a slacker runner like me, I might as well have just finished the MCM in under 4 hours, and I still can't get the ear to ear grin off my face. My running partner agreed that we rocked the house.

The long, but much more entertaining version:
I had initially passed on this race, as I didn't think I'd be ready for a 5 miler by now, but after a nice 4 mile run about 3 weeks ago where I didn't want to throw myself under a moving car at the end of it, I realized I'd be running 5 miles for my tri training at this point anyway, so why not do it with some USMC eye candy and get a t-shirt to boot? That was also the same day I had a complete mental breakdown and registered for the Shamrock Half Mary in March. Good run days can be very dangerous.

Pre Race Routine: Hi, it's been 20 years since I did a road race - I have no routine. So, I set several alarm clocks, had a bagel for breakfast, checked the weather and wondered what hypothermia would be like given it was 20 degrees out. Loud angry music courtesy of DC-101 on the way down to Quantico helped in prep as well.

Warmup: Light jog from car to packet pickup (aka, where is Barber PAC, please don't tell me "that brick building" - they're ALL brick buildings! - I haven't been on this base since high school!), finding running/tri bud Liz, and then some stretching & bouncing around to stay warm - it's still in the low 30s at this point, and she is as disgruntled with the temps as I am, especially considering I was out running in SHORTS on Wednesday morning. Once all that was taken care of, still had a good 15 minutes to hang out before the gun went off.

The actual run:
The course was MUCH flatter than I expected - by default, the training around the house is hill training, so this was an excellent turn of events.

Basically ran about 98%+ of the course - 2 shoelace stops, walked through the water break, and a brief hurl stop just before the end - I am insanely pleased with myself over the lack of walking outside the water station. (Seriously, I can't run and drink. I can barely walk and drink w/out getting water up my nose and/or all over the place. Fortunately Liz is the same way and we could both laugh about it. I'd make a lousy hasher.)

First two miles in around 20 minutes - felt terrific, but was definitely happy to see the water station somewhere after 2 so we could walk for a little bit.

No problems starting back up again after the water (one of my bigger fears - stopping to walk for water and my legs refusing to go again), we managed to miss the 3rd mile marker - it may have actually been the water station and we just didn't realize it.

Somewhere between 3-ish & 4, there were some Marines sitting out on one of the hall steps just *watching*... Let the smacktalking begin! "SLACKERS!!!" may possibly have come out my mouth at a very high volume... This was followed by a lot of laughing on both sides and "HOORAHS!!!!!!!!!!!" back & forth. Kicked us both up a notch, which is never a bad thing.

The fact that at this point I'd been running for at least 3.5 miles w/just one short walk break for water and could still
a) hold a semi intelligent, understandable conversation w/Liz &
b) yell at Marines was fantastic.

Saw the mile 4 marker and looked at my watch, and started shouting a lot of very loud, very thrilled obscenities, as we were just past 42 minutes. I realize that it truly looks like I am going to break an 11 minute pace with some time to spare.

Coming down the hill to the track at the end, I was getting HOT. The two Puritanical brain cells in my head said "Don't be an exhibitionist, you're near done anyway", the rest said "Forget it, you're all hot, start stripping!", and off with the sweatshirt & the t-shirt in my best tribute to Brandi Chastain. MUCH better. However, about 50 yards out from the finish, I realize: I'm gonna hurl.

There was just no way around it and no putting it off - between pushing myself as much as I had, and the fact that my nose had been running/sinuses draining the whole time cause of the temps, it was inevitable. I told Liz, "Gimme just a sec", stepped off the track, and tossed my cookies. (I don't know if she could tell but I was laughing cause all I could think was the motto of several tris/runners I know of "if you're not puking, you're not trying!" Probably not the most help physically, but the laughter gave me that last mental "up" I needed.)

Then I straightened up, yelled to her "Well I didn't need that Starbucks anyway!" and sprinted the rest of the way into the chute, cause there was no way on God's green earth I was going to *walk* across the finish line after coming that far, puking or not. And still beat the crap out of an 11 minute mile. Liz gave me the best compliment I could have ever asked for - "You puked and then SPRINTED! You are hard core!" And repeatedly reminded me after the race that I had just done 5 miles RUNNING. :)

Post Race: First, SAT DOWN - thank heavens for the benches just inside the chute (may have been more of a "fell down and the bench was in a good place to catch me") Then tried to stand up to get my chip off my shoe and nearly fell over. Got some semblance of balance and muscle control back after a minute or so, got the chip off my shoe, then water, bagels, cookies and stretching.

All in all, a terrific race - I can honestly say I went all out, did NOT hold back (quite literally at one point) and kicked it big time. Can't wait for my next race.