Human Race 8K Race Report

Pharmie and I ran the “Saint Patrick’s Day Human Race” 8K this afternoon. It was 32 degrees when we were getting ready to go, so we wore shorts! It’s a frickin’ heat wave! Here’s Pharmie getting laced up:

And here we are, all ready to go:

Here’s the weird part: we left our house 12 minutes before the start of the race and made it in PLENTY of time. The race started by the University of St. Thomas, so the starting line was 3/4 of a mile down the street from our house. We jogged down there to warm up, and were ready for the gun.

I had my usual 3 goals: what I KNEW I could do, what I HOPED I would do, and my CRAZY goal that would be something to shoot for. For this 8K (5 miles), I knew I could run it in 32 minutes, I hoped to break 31, and my crazy goal was to break 30 minutes. That would be 6-minute miles. I didn’t know how realistic my crazy goal was, but it’s always fun to dream.

Anyway, back at the starting line: Bang. We were off. I was farther back than I should have been, so I passed about 100 people in the first mile.

Mile 1: 6:27. Well, not as fast as I had hoped, but it was the first mile of battling through the crowds.

Mile 2: 6:03. Better, better...

Mile 3: 6:17. OK, so I’m not going to break 30 minutes, but I’m still gonna run my little butt off.

Mile 4: 6:09. Not bad. Just before mile 4, I started hurting. It was nice that the “mile 4 marker” was on a bit of a downhill, so I tried to use that momentum. My right side was tight and sore, which bummed me out because I’ve been SO GOOD at doing my core exercises lately. Anyway, I was hurting but moving good. I kept picking up the pace. I crossed the finish line at a nice (but painful) clip.

Mile 5: 5:30. Sweet.

Total: 30:28 (official time: 30:30)
Pace: 6:06/mile
Place: 121 out of 1033

Maybe the best “mini-victory” of the day was that no one passed me. Not a single runner. I was picking people off (faster at the beginning, and much slower near the end). But I was able to hold everyone off that I passed. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do that in the last half mile.

While I was in the large finishers chute area waiting for Pharmie, I ran into Josh, an old high school classmate. I hadn’t seen him since graduation, and I had heard that he was becoming a speedy runner (he was speedy in high school, but I heard he was getting faster and faster). He had placed 5th in 25:03. CRAZY!!

Josh and I parted ways, and I went to watch Pharmie finish. The announcer at the finish line was Gary, the president and founder of Charities Challenge who I had formally met at the “Race Up The Place” stair climb. We chatted as I waited for Pharmie. When I saw her, Gary handed me the microphone and told me to announce her finish. “Alright Sarah!! Way to go Sarah!!” She cracked a smile as she crossed the line.

Well, nothing more to do but to walk back home. It was SO WEIRD just walking to and from the event. We got home and I was hungry (what’s new). So I had 16 chicken nuggets...

...followed by 3 bowls of Wheaties.

Stay tuned for more news about how hairy I am. There’s a story I need to share with you all shortly about earlier this weekend... Thanks for reading!