welcome to newbies
liath, did you come to watch the 5k? I tried looking out for a woman with dog, but didn't spot any.
Well it was a lovely day for a 5k, although I could have done with it being sunny on the west side of Arthur's Seat where the race started. Boy it was chilly. I should have brought my gloves, and I forgot my water bottle - too busy reading "Run" and not keeping an eye on the time this morning.
DS2 would have come and watched me if he'd realised that I was driving round to the start and wouldn't have made him walk. Ho hum. Maybe one day I'll have a member of the family cheering me on. DS1 shows no interest whatsoever, but that's mainly because he's a teenager.
There were tons of people at the venue as they had lots of junior races beforehand and televised xcountry races afterwards. For the 5k race there were elite, fast team racers and a couple of colours for speedier amateurs before my green lot. Unfortunately they'd given the green people a much smaller size 'pen' to wait in so the warm up was a bit crazy with people only really having enough space to clap hands above heads and jump up and down.
Having the speedy people leaving first and more people racing than my previous races (I think) meant that I wasn't too demoralised by people shooting off or overtaking me early on. In fact it was a bit cramped for the first section and I got to do some of the overtaking.
It was clockwise round Arthur's Seat, with my previous 5k race being anti-clockwise. I prefer this way round, but the altitude chart doesn't seem to be much difference in slope either way. It was very cold to start with being in the shadow of the hill, but not much in the way of wind. At the top we were in the sun and wind which made it hotter and harder going.
Did my usual plod up hill. I quite like running up hill as it gives me an excuse to plod at my usual pace, and in fact I was still able to overtake the odd person. For the downhill stretch where I was able to let fly, I managed to get up to 9:15 min/mile pace for 1 of my miles which for me is very impressive! My uphill mile was 13:26 and my up high mile was 11:23 m/m.
I was well chuffed with my time of 35:22 which is a PB. Being in a race certainly makes a difference. I was tons slower on Friday's pre-breakfast 5k run even though that was on the flat. Maybe hills suit me better. I came 1253 out of 1494, and if the race results stats are to believed there were 3 80+ people racing today who all got better times than me!!!
I think I need to improve my pelvic floor muscles, or become a tena lady as I found the pounding downhill a little too much for me, even though I'd not been having anything to drink. In fact I think that was the reason - if I have a fuller bladder it works harder to keep it in, when it's nearly empty it doesn't know it has to work harder. On that last stretch my capri leggings then decided to split at the seams. I just hope (fingers crossed) that none of this shows on the photos, as I was making a point of looking happy and smiling whenever I saw someone with a camera in the hopes of avoiding the puffed out cheeks, half dead look of most of my previous race photos. Oh well.
There was a second race bib to put on my back with room to write in your charity. If I'd thought of it earlier I would have written LFDT on it to help liath spot me.
There were lots of goodies in the end of race bag. The long sleeved t-shirt has a snowflake design on (thankfully not a reflection of the weather) and is very comfy. I've got some gels and samples of various things ranging from toothpaste, deodorant, tissues, massage gel and joint cream. The chocolate biscuits were the most appreciated though.
As if that wasn't enough exercise for the day, I then took the boys to Snowzone in Glasgow (as promised for the Christmas break, but this was the first day I've been able to wake them up in time to go, as they've gone a bit nocturnal) and had an hours skiing on real snow. Much nicer than skiing at Hillend in Edinburgh on a surface reminiscent of upturned hairbrushes.
I'm nicely worn out now, and eating more chocolate biscuits (not related to the race). My diet will have to resume again tomorrow.
Now I just need to prepare for my first 10k in a fortnight.
Looking forward to being in the secret gang once I'd been added to FB etc.
Good luck to ibby and running for tomorrow (or later today, having noticed what time it is - hmm, seem to be turning nocturnal myself).