Am I nuts? :)

Yeah, I'm nuts. This morning I did 12.7 miles with the TNT summer team (about 8 faster w/the runners, and 5 slower w/the walkers) in good weather (overcast and about 45), and then this afternoon in pouring rain, sleet, and yes, snow, I did a 5K handicapped race with the Wasatch Walkers.

First, the TNT workout. Most of the team did 10 miles (all except one). I started off w/our runners, who were doing about a 9:30 pace. I alternated racewalking and running, because I wanted to stay with them, wanted to be able to converse easily, and did not want my IT band to hurt. So when I started getting winded, I switched to running, and as soon as my breathing recovered, I switched to walking. They slowed down after 2-3 miles and then I mostly racewalked but threw in a little running to keep up. My IT band felt fine so far. Then our fastest runner, who did 20 miles today (she's training for an earlier marathon), caught up to us (she went south then north and had 3 miles to make up) at the northernmost aid station, 5 miles out. Yeah, she did 8 in the time we did 5 and stopped at the aid stations and bathrooms (we were leisurely w/our stops). Like I said, she's fast. So I RAN FAST (8:15-8:30 miles mostly, though I did get her to slow down to 9:00 for a bit) with her for about 1.5 miles before turning around and coming back. I had perfect timing to meet the walkers at their northernmost point and walked the 5 miles back with them to the start. Just as we got there (about 5 min later) I was walking back north to find our 20-mile runner and she appeared. I felt bad that I hadn't turned around sooner to meet her, but she had done AWESOME and she looked great, so I felt less guilty then.

I drove home and attended to domestic duties for a couple hours, then drove with my racewalking friends down to Provo for our Wasatch Walkers Handicapped 5K Series - Race #1. It was POURING rain when we started, and about 38 degrees. During the race, the rain turned to sleet, then snow, then rain again. Ick! But we didn't get that cold, since we were working so hard (just my hands and Diane's hands). I had my doubts about my performance since I was kinda tired from the morning's efforts, but this is good training for Portland-to-Coast (which I'm entered in - Aug 28th) to do two workouts in a day, so I figured, "why not?".

Since it was a handicapped race, we started at different times - slowest first, and fastest (me) last. I started 9:12 behind the first person; that seemed like a lot, but it turned out to be pretty good. I did the handicapping based on everyone's best 5K time, and if they had an old 5K that didn't reflect current injury status, etc., or didn't have a 5K time, then I used their most recent 1/2 marathon time and the age grading calculator on www.eRacewalk.com to get an approximate best 5K time. This worked like a charm for everyone except Diane... all of us finished within about 2 minutes of each other, except for Diane. Her 5K times are disproportionately slower than her 1/2 marathon times, and I forgot to take that into account when I calculated the handicaps. I should have, and I feel bad. My apologies, Diane (but the next race will be handicapped from this one, so next time she'll have a better advantage).

Anyway, on to the race... I got everyone started at the right times w/Boyd's stopwatch and then waited the rest of my time for my own start. It was cold standing there for 9 minutes in the rain and I was glad to get going. The first 2.5k was uphill (gentle, but relentless) and the last 2.5k was downhill. I could tell from my first 1k that I was going to be slow. I did it in 6:01 (they had handy markers every 100m on this trail - LOVED that!!!) despite a pretty high heart rate (avg 161, max 179). It was hard to push myself in the second 1k, but I did it in 6:08. The rain was a bit dispiriting and of course I could not see my competition until near the 2k mark. Around there I saw everyone coming back toward me; they had already turned around. But I was tantalizingly closer than I thought I would be. I hit 3k in 5:58 (1/2 uphill, 1/2 downhill) and passed Diane near the 3k mark. I got to 4k in 6:00 (yeah, slow for downhill, but I was tired), and could see Nancy, Cindy, and Carol ahead. I passed them around 4-4.5k, and then I saw Boyd. He was SO close yet so far, and he was moving quickly. I didn't know if I would catch him, but I caught him within the last 100m and it made for a very exciting finish. My split was 5:48 (nice negative split!) and ave HR at the end was 167. That's a bit lower than my usual 5K; I think I didn't push quite as hard as in a typical road race, probably because I was just plain tired. Total splits add up to 29:55, my slowest 5K ever, though I swear my watch said 29:50 when I crossed the finish. Well, it's close enough. I am happy with this race and with my time, even though it was slow, because of the conditions and how tired I was going in. It was a kick to be able to pass everyone, but I do wonder if my handicap times were fair. I tried to be as fair as possible. Boyd finished about 0:12 after me (so close!), Nancy 0:48 after me, Carol & Cindy 0:50 after me, and Diane 3:54 after me (yeah, you can see this was not good handicapping for Diane, but pretty good for the rest of us with such a close finish).

Afterwards, we warmed up by Boyd's fireplace & enjoyed some good food and great company. We gave out medals for the top 3 finishers and plotted the next month's 5K race. We want to have one each month all summer long :). I'm all for that! I hope someone else wins next time in an exciting finish that brings everyone back for more.

Oh, my IT band started to hurt at the very end of the 5K, when I stopped racewalking (it probably hurt sooner but I didn't notice due to the effort). I think I just overdid the running this morning and hopefully will be fine if I take tomorrow off.

Now I'm up too late writing this race report and I will pay tomorrow... but it's been fun :).

Here are the photos from the WW race.