Takoma Park 5K

I'm just back from the Takoma Park 5K, an event for which I was sadly undertrained.  However, I did my best and that satisfies me fine. I don't have the official results yet, but I had three different devices tracking me (!) and the unofficial results are a pace of about 13:20 and a time of about 41 minutes.

EDIT: OFFICIAL RESULTS

545 278/327  190/219    480 Nan Shellabarger      F 59 Silver Spring MD    00:41:06 13:14 00:41:35 13:23   

It means I was 278 out of 327 (190 out of 219 women) and my time was 41:06 for a pace of 13:14.

I ran the first mile, and from then on, alternated jogging and walking. My heart rate had gotten quite high - over 150 - and I really couldn't maintain that for long. It seems that for this morning, at least, that heart rate was the edge of nausea - my redline.  So I walked until the heart rate dropped and then I'd jog till it got back up and stayed there for a bit.  The first time, I was looking for the recovery rate of 120 but then I thought "wait a minute, this is a race, just go as fast as you can" so I'd recover to under 140 and then push into a jog again.  Just before the end, my left calf started to hurt but I barely noticed it. It's quite sore now, however.

I had half a berry-and-nut smoothie (no dairy) beforehand and a small cup of coffee (I'm just re-caffeinating from the detox). Plenty of water.  No water along the way (didn't think it would help the nausea).

Before the race

PsychoKiller blaring on the sound system. I'm adding to my playlist!

Milling about in the starting pen

We're off!  (Into the sun)

Fast runners heading back the other way

I'm now back with the children and strollers and walkers

The finish!!!

Homage to BitchCakes. Plus I'm strangely reluctant to remove the number.