Race Crazy?

Well, I've now done a different race 4 weekends in a row and I feel like I'm getting a bit addicted to races! It is becoming a slightly spendy habit though, but it's been a fun few weeks and all different races...5K, Ragnar, 10K and an 8K yesterday. Yesterday 's run was the Arizona Road Racers Luck of the Draw 8K. It was in Peoria about 10 minutes from my house. Suzanne and I signed up for it together just earlier this week. The registration form said everyone that pre-registers gets a medal and a Buca di Beppo coupon. Also, everyone would be dealt a card at the finish to try winning a door prize...so it sounded good for a $20 8K.

The course was nice. It was along a wash that is connected to one of our usual running paths, just further west. We had a great first mile which tends to be my saving grace when I get tired later in the race. The problem was that the race did not start until 7:30, and guess what...we are having higher than normal temps right now in AZ and by mile 2 we were soaked in sweat feeling the sun beating down on us. Big difference than my 5:30 start from last weekend and Suzanne and I haven't done any "heat training" yet. I tried to push us to the next water station at 2.5, but Suzanne was starting to feel a little sick (in her first trimester right now). I walked with her a bit and then she asked me to go on ahead. This was weird since it is usually the opposite - I let her go on ahead since she is faster than me, but when I told her I feel bad leaving her she reminded me of the many times I let her go on. So I kept going taking a few walk breaks on the hills on miles 4 and 5 since I was so hot. I finished considerably slower than the last race at 53:00 which was a 10:40 pace, but it was just nice knowing I finished the first race of a handful of summer races to come. Can't be setting our expectations too high in this heat or we might just pass out! We got out and did it! Suzanne made up some amazing time and came in just 56 seconds after me. The announcers asked us if we knew each other since we have matching knee braces. :) We hung out for the door prizes and Suzanne won a very cute drawstring bag with pink daisies on it. I, of course, won nothing BUT found out that I placed 4th in my age division. Had I been going my pace of last week I could have had a place medal! I was less than a minute and 1/2 behind 3rd. Very odd at my pace, but now I know that it might be attainable if I'm running against a small group - this one was only 118 people with only 9 in my division. Next small ARR race I'm definitely giving it my all in some small hope of a medal. We'll see. As I said all finishers did get a "medal" for this race. It was actually a dog tag with a color logo, name and date of the race - something different to put in my display case. Good times overall and by the way...Happy Mother's Day a bit late to all of you moms! I'm not racing for the next couple weeks because I'll be out of town - weird, maybe I will have to find races in Austin and San Fran for the upcoming weekends. ;)