Oh man, is summer really over? I’m not ready for the shorter days and a full time class load 
Well, I ended summer with a final last minute addition to my race schedule. My friend Leslie suggested we run the 5k portion of Race to End of Summer on Sept. 9. I figured why not, can’t hurt to get a good little speed run in right?
Unfortunately, Leslie’s grandmother passed away right before the race so she had to fly home and I ended up running the race solo. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I had never heard of the race but I knew I wanted to place in the overall top 3 women finishers and I was looking for a sub 21:30 finishing time. I completed one of those goals.
I arrived with plenty of time to spare and ran a nice little warm up mile. It was sunny in San Jose and getting warmer by the minute. I made my way to the start line as the 10k runners started. A few minutes later and we were off. The race started and ended in a business park. The 5k course includes a small section of trail, but the 10k and half marathon courses seemed to include much more of that section. The course was pretty flat but I just couldn’t seem to push myself. And then, right after the mile 2 marker, my shoe came untied! What! This had never happened to me in a race before. I knew I was the 3rd woman and so I hurried to tie my lace and keep my spot. I made it to the turn around and saw that I had some space between myself and the next woman. The heat bothered me (I don’t know why, it wasn’t THAT hot). But I maintained the distance between myself and the woman behind me and crossed the finish line at 22:07 by my watch (I stopped it when I tied my shoe, official finish time 22:19). Dang it, I missed that PR!
3rd Place!
I hung out for a bit and then ran my cool down mile and changed into some trainer shoes. When I returned results had been posted. They were organized by age group and I was 3rd in my division. But they did not have overall results posted. It seemed like I might be 3rd overall woman but I couldn’t be sure. When they started to announce the results, the name they called as first woman finisher was not the name of the woman who finished first. It seems something got a little mixed up as the records indicated the first woman finisher was actually a teenage boy! Whoops. Once that got cleared up, the correct winners were named and yep, I was 3rd!!! Woohoo!! And my prize? A gift certificate for a pair of shorts or shirt at the Lululemon showroom in Los Gatos! Awesome!
New Lulu shorts!
While I was sad about missing that PR, I was stoked with the finish and the great prize. I think this is a race that would be more fun to run with friends, running through a business park is a little hard to get excited about, but still I’m glad I ran it. After the race, I drove back to Santa Cruz so Jenn and I could cheer on Elise who was completing her first Half Ironman! What an awesome accomplishment for her!
My sign for Elise!
Here are my splits for the 5k:
Mile 1 – 6:19
Mile 2 – 7:17
Mile 3 – 7:32
