Dixie Divas Race Report

I didn’t eat great yesterday… just really wasn’t careful.  Had leftover ribs and garlic toast for lunch, Chipotle for dinner.  I woke up at 6 to eat breakfast, and decided to go with the usual 2 eggs, 2 slices of toast, and coffee.  After all, it was a mere 5K, 10 miles less than last month’s half marathon.  I wasn’t taking it super serious in my nutrition preparation, which may have been a mistake!

Weather was perfect… about 70* and cloudy.

For my clothing, I wore my new Nike “Shorty-shorts” as I call them, which I bought yesterday.  Nothing says Serious Runner like short shorts, right?  Anyway, I knew I shouldn’t try out something new on race day, but they were so colorful and fun, I didn’t care.  They did ride up a little, but not enough to bug me.  It just made me semi-self-conscious to wear such short, tight shorts.  I wore my pink shirt from the Indoor Insanity relay in 2013.  I had to have something girly and fun, since the race was a ladies race.

Showed up at the Dixie Diva 5K around 8 AM (start was 8:30).  The boys came with me, which is nice to have support (but can be distracting… LOL!)  Got my bearings, did a one mile warm-up, and stretched with Gabe. 

Stomach was gurgly (sigh….) so I took an Immodium AD tablet on the way to the race (I have a draft blog post on that… it’ll have to come later).  Used the bathroom twice before the race, which was thankfully inside with NO LINE!!! in the Milton Center for the Arts, but did cause me some concern.  Gabe seemed very excited about running this morning, so we did a few more back and forths down the street, before I lined up.

Strategy: Normally, I’d be more conservative, but I figured “let me just go out hard and see if I can hang on!”  Plus, with the downhill the first mile, I didn’t really want to take it easy.  I went out moderately hard, and had the lead for nearly a mile.  It was an awesome feeling to be out front, behind the cop on a motorcycle leading the way.  Lots of volunteers cheered us on.

I got passed by “Virginia Tech” (you can see her above–we looked pretty similar) around mile 1.  I didn’t care.  My watch went off and told me I ran a 6:50 the first mile (yikes!!)  Granted, there was that huge downhill.  Just try to hang on, V.  The main goal was to PR, and beat my best from 4 weeks ago on my solo run, of 24:18.

Before the turnaround, I got passed by “Pink Cowgirl.”  She was looking really strong.  I told myself to just let them go, and perhaps I’d catch up by the finish.  No one was even close to me at that point, so I set my sights on hanging on, and at the very least, getting 3rd place.  I chugged along, and Mile 2’s time was something like 7:48.  Blah…. at least I’m still on track for the PR.  My goal pace was 7:30, since I knew I was capable of 7:37 miles from that run a few weeks ago.

I reached the hill about 100 meters back from VA Tech.  Pink Cowgirl was way out in front.  The hill was daunting, about 100 feet elevation change, and I really had to dig deep.  I thought I was gaining on VA Tech, but I couldn’t tell.  I knew 23 minutes was possible.  I FINALLY reached the top of the hill, and had about 0.3 to go.  I didn’t have much left in the tank… so I did the best I could to “drop the hammer” and go for it.  I rounded the corner onto Spruce St and saw the finish, and it was a nice downhill.

I noticed the clock said 22:59 as I went past… Sweet!  [My chip time was 22:56, but in the interest of full disclosure, my GPS watch said 3.04, so the course was a bit short… bummer!  Still a PR though, well under my previous best.  My time would have been around 23:30 if the course had been the full 3.1 miles]

I got a Dixie Divas necklace, and some chocolate, and caught my breath.  My stomach didn’t feel good, but thankfully it didn’t mess up my race.  I just noticed it as soon as I finished, and headed inside with Gabe.  More GI distress…. so glad I was able to race well, but the rest of the day, until about 3 PM, I felt AWFUL.  The Immodium helped shut down the actual bowel movements… but I still felt the urge to go.  Not cool at all.

Note: I bought these pics from the event photographers, Fire Eye Studios.

Anyways, we waited around, had a few snacks–tho I wasn’t hungry at all–and waited for the awards ceremony.  I was called first, in third place, but they didn’t have medals, which was kinda disappointing.  I did get a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and a $20 gift card for Black Mountain Chocolate, which is pretty awesome.  And a cork that says “Dixie Divas.”  We took off after that, and I pretty much laid on the couch for about 5 hours trying to recover.

I finally felt better, so we went for ice cream at Coldstone Creamery (chocolate ice cream with Oreos mixed in, in a waffle cone, YUM!)  Then I finished laundry, deep-cleaned the bathroom with Gabe, and took some of these gems: