USATF National Masters' Championships - Women's 5000m racewalk, ages 30-64

 I just wrote a long beautiful post about the race, and it got eaten when the Internet connection crashed. So frustrating! I'll start over, and hopefully will remember it all.

I got to the track at 8 am, just in time to watch the start of the women's 5000m for ages 65 & up. While I was watching the race and getting my numbers, I met lots of neat racewalkers. Peter Bayer and his wife Sally were there for Peter's race in the 5000m men ages 60-74. I also met Sandy Hults from Florida, Lynn Tracy of Wisconsin (who I had met yesterday), Mary Snyder from Boise (who I met in Boise last fall for the women's fitness celebration 5K), Pansy Geer from New Jersey, and many others. It was wonderful to be in such a large group of racewalkers and see the other races - it calmed my nerves a little to chat with others and watch the older women and the men (ages 74-85!) do their races before mine. I sat with Peter and Sally in the stands for a while after I got my numbers, and they were kind enough to watch my jacket and phone and car keys during my race.

Pretty soon it was time to warm up, so I did about 10 min easy with some pick-ups and I felt fast and smooth. I was as ready as I was going to be, and I walked over to the tent for final race instructions. They lined us up by our numbers, and we went over to the track. They started the older women on the inside and the younger ones (I was 19 out of 20; only one woman was younger than me) on the outside. After the gun, I was able to get over relatively quickly and there was no elbowing or anything, which was good. I was about 4th going into the first turn, where I wanted to be to avoid traffic. I did the first 200m in about 1:03, which was a little fast, but I did want to be near the front, so that was OK. I was feeling great, so when we hit 1k in 5:32 I was pleased, but knew it was a bit fast (5:36 would be 28:00 for the race). I didn't keep track of my splits very well (unusual for me) because I was concentrating on other things like my form and breathing, etc., but I know 2k was pretty slow - about 11:25, which was 5:53 for the 2nd 1k. I was able to pick up the pace a bit after that, though. I am pretty sure that with 4 laps to go I was at 19:25-ish.

As for the others, Katie Grimes (age 44) led for most of the race; she was about 10-15 sec in front of me (maybe even 20-30 at some points) for a good part of the time. With about 2 laps to go I was catching up, and I poured it on at the end but was unable to catch her, even though I was breathing very hard and giving it my all. Lynn Tracy ("Tracy", age 57) was perhaps 20 seconds behind me for most of the race, but with a couple laps to go, she passed me and though I tried to stay with her, I just couldn't quite do it; she also passed Katie and finished first in 28:31. I fully expected Mary Snyder (age 57) to beat me by a good margin (1-2 minutes), as she is easily capable of 27 minute times, so I wasn't surprised when she passed me about 3 or 4 laps into the 12.5 lap race. However, I was able to stay with her for a few laps, and then I picked it up and passed her, and she never did pass me again. She told me after the race that she has done TEN marathons (!!!) this year, and that she only started doing speed work 5 weeks ago; I'm sure that's the only reason I was able to stay ahead of her.

The last 2 laps were brutal, as I tried valiantly to catch Tracy and Katie, and though I gave it my all, I just couldn't do it. However, I finished in a new personal best time of 28:36, in third place overall. Katie was second in 28:35, just one second ahead of me, and Tracy was first in 28:31. Wow, I was only 5 seconds away from winning the whole thing! For my first judged racewalk, I am very pleased, and my hat is off to Tracy and Katie for a terrific race. I was first in my age group, though, so I received a gold medal and a patch that says "National Champion" on it. Wow. I'm a national champion! How cool is that!?! And third overall, against some very speedy competition.

Oh, forgot to mention the weather - it is hot here today (was 88 at noon) but thankfully it was overcast for our race. It was still hot and kind of humid (by Utah/eastern WA standards), and I was pretty uncomfortable at the end of the race, but not bad. I am glad for the hot track workouts I did before today, though.

In summary, this has been such fabulous fun! I am glad to have the afternoon off (nap! followed by Olympics tonight) and the day off tomorrow to rest up for the 10K at 7:30 am on Sunday. The 10K is going to be a really exciting race, after today!

More pictures HERE if you're interested. Sorry these aren't the best - my SD card is dead on my good camera, and I had to take these with my phone; I think I got some sunscreen on the outside and so the last few pics are terrible. Oh well!

Oh, I forgot to post that I didn't get any warnings or red cards, either :). The judges DQ'd 3 women in my race, but I think my form is good, so I was fine. I thought about it a lot during the race to make sure that I was legal!