Tesfa 5K

Or, “Trying To Defend My First Title.”

Or, “Bringin’ Home Lots of Goodies.”

If you’ve just recently started following my blog, you might think that I’m a pretty good runner. Well, it hasn’t always been like that. Exactly 1 year ago, I won my first race, the Tesfa 5K, in a time of 19:15. Today, I was headed back to the same race, to try to win it again.

Last Night:

Last night was Halloween. That meant candy. I had A LOT of pre-race candy. I counted 6 mini York Peppermint Patties and 4 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And I don’t even like chocolate. AND, to cap it all off, Pharmie said, “Let’s order Thai!” Super. What a great evening of crappy food the night before a race:

After our meal, Pharmie went to visit her folks, so I had the bed all to myself. I literally slept like this the whole night:

CLICK HERE for the uncensored version of that photo.

Pre-Race:

I got up, had my typical pre-race poop, had some oatmeal and some of Phramie’s left-over Thai, and was ready to go. I drove into Fort Snelling State Park:

I looked across Lake Snelling, which was the lake we were going to be running around:

I parked, got my race number, and started walking part of the course to stay warm. In this photo, the final turn is off in the distance, and the finishers chute is tucked off to the right:

Walking past the start/finish line, I spotted a few doe and one buck just a few feet off the trail. Here’s the buck (a 6-8 pointer):

I stopped to talk with 2 ladies directing traffic for a few minutes, and then headed back towards the race start. After a few minutes, Borsch showed up, and we were both ready to race.

Today, I FINALLY looked like a real runner! Let me explain. Running IM WI last year, people teased me for my LONG, baggy running shorts. So I took that to heart and went in the opposite direction, and that saw the birth of the SHORT yellow shorts, AKA the Bowl Full of Sunshine. Here are those 2 pairs of shorts (long shorts from IM WI 07 on State Street, the Bowl Full of Sunshine from WIBA 08 also on State Street):

Today, for the first time, I wore a pair of NORMAL LENGTH running shorts! Here’s a photo of Borsch and I (after the finish), and you can see how “normal” I look (despite the funky socks):

Anyway, we lined up, and got ready to run. I saw a tall 17 year old boy, and I told him he looked speedy. We talked for a moment, and we both figured we could go sub-18 on a good day, so I knew there was going to be a race!

Race:

We heard the air horn, and we were off. I hopped right into 3rd place. There was an older, lanky guy with a small ponytail running in front of me, along with the speedy 17 year old. I spent the first mile just on their tail, running in 3rd. I was running easy, and I felt good.

Mile 1: 5:40. “Umm, I thought I was taking it easy.” That 5:40 mile felt good! It felt so much better than the 5:34 first mile at my 5K a few weeks back. I was feeling great!

We hopped off the paved trail and hit more of a gravel path. I don’t like gravel: I “spin out” too much while trying to run that fast. I caught up to the older guy with the ponytail, and we actually chatted for a bit on that part of the trail. “Nice pace!” I said. “Oh, I love running these trail runs,” he said back. I replied, “Well, I just like running in this weather this time of year.” He agreed. We went back-and-forth for 2nd and 3rd for a few minutes.

Mile 2: 5:43. “What? I’m holding onto that pace?” I have to admit, 2 letters entered my mind: PR. Yep, I was NOT planning on being able to PR. But with those first 2 miles, I thought I’d kick it in the butt a little and see what I could do. I pulled away from the guy with the ponytail, and I only pulled farther and farther away. I had 2nd place.

I pushed and I pushed. But there was no way I was going to gain on that speedy 17 year old. Anytime I kicked, he did too. He was always 10-15 seconds in front of me. I came up to mile 3 near the final turn. Here’s what it looked like:

Mendota Bridge in the distance, and a sharp left to the finish

Mile 3: 5:46. I have NEVER had such consistent splits over a 5K. They were all within 6 seconds of one another!

Last 0.1: 0:38.

Total: 17:48
Second place overall
First place in Age Group
My second fastest 5K!!
1:27 off my time from the same course last year!

It was a good day! I had told Borsch that it wasn’t a “PR course,” but I got close! And before too long, Borsch came to the line WITH A PR!!

Swing by Borsch’s blog to congratulate him on his 5K PR!

Post Race:

We cheered on the other runners for a while, and then we started back towards the shelter for the awards. On the way, we met up with Kat (or Cat, maybe Katt, in dunno...) and we all chatted. She had just finished her FIRST RACE! Congrats Kat!! (If you’re reading this, how do I spell your name? You can comment anonymously without an account, so feel free to drop a note and just sign your name so I know it’s you. Hope to see you at more races!)

I received my award for first in my age group:

The 3 of us talked a bit more, and we were ready to take off. But the sponsors had donated too much stuff, so the race officials kept asking us to take more. Here’s the haul that Borsch and I took away from the race:

Sweet! We don’t need to cook for 4 days!

So, another fun 5K in the books! I’ll be back with some BIG NEWS on Monday!