Although this race was awhile back in May, it was memorable as my WORST race ever! Aside from my perpetually runny nose and nausea from gross Gu, I actually loved the race itself! The Five & Dime Run was the smallest race I’ve ever been in– 149 people for the 10mile race. By mile 2-3, everyone was so spread out, it didn’t even feel like a race. The 5-mile race had 200 people but they started going the opposite direction and looped back so we didn’t run into them. The White Rock Lake trail had nice lake views, trees.
The crappy part was that I went into the race already feeling under the weather. I didn’t run ALL week in an attempt to prevent getting sick after whitewater rafting during my Denver trip but it happened anyway. The drive from Houston to Dallas ended up taking 5 hours so it was relatively late by the time I arrived. Drives always wear me out and my first stop when I arrived in Dallas was to pick up some cold medicine. I knew I wasn’t feeling 100% but I wasn’t going to skip out on Jamie’s first 10-miler! As expected, my nose was very runny during the race and my shirt became one big handkerchief. I realized how out of it I was after I pinned my bib just before the race and realized that my shirt was on inside out! Oops.
Pre-race: We arrived around 7am for our 8am race. Parking wasn’t a problem and there was hardly a line to pick up our bibs. 10 minutes before the race, Jamie and I shared this vanilla orange roctane gu. BAD IDEA. SO GROSS. I ate a tiny bit and had to throw it away. Yuck. Then I drank all this water to wash it down, so by the time I started running, I could feel the water sloshing around in my stomach. 5 minutes before the race, it hit me how tiny the race really was. The start wasn’t crowded at all and they were actually telling us to move up to the start line.
Miles 1-5: The start was downhill and because it wasn’t crowded, it moved fairly quickly. I struggled to slow down my pace and found myself checking my time A LOT. My nose was runny but I managed to save one tissue until mile 3, lol. After that, I just had to use my shirt. Unfortunately, my stomach never got to feeling totally okay with the roctane, and I felt a little nauseous. Around mile 3, I also could tell that a blister was forming on my left foot. By mile 5, same with the right foot. Yikes. I think I stopped for water twice in the first 5 miles.
Miles 6-10: I had planned on taking my second gu around the start of mile 6 but I was feeling nauseous from the roctane and didn’t think I’d be able to handle another gu. Around mile 8, I was tired and feeling periodically nauseous. I think I stopped to walk 4 times in the last 2 miles (once for water)!! Terrible. Even when I only had less than half a mile left, I didn’t have the energy to pick up the pace. The finish line was the same as the start line, which meant it was uphill. I seriously debated walking at that point, but there was so much distance between me and anyone else that I felt it would be too embarrassing to WALK through the finish. I managed to jog…slowly. The race was small enough that they were announcing the names and hometowns of the finishers! Wow, kinda cool. My 2 friends that ran the 5-mile race were at the finish to take our pictures. I gave them a quick wave, grabbed my medal, grabbed a cup of water, and just kept walking so I could cool down.
Splits:
1) 9:03
2) 9:30
3) 9:34
4) 9:33
5) 9:41
6) 9:47
7) 9:34
8) 10:08
9) 10:16
10) 10:20
10.17) 10:43
Despite the circumstances, I somehow managed to make my goal of finishing the race under 1:40 (under a 10:00/M pace)! I later saw the official times and found that I placed 4th (out of 12, haha). Top 3 in each age group got awards! So close, haha. It’d be so cool to get an award! Gotta love these smaller races.
Jamie finished a few minutes later and we grabbed free muscle milk, free tech tees, water/Gatorade; got a group shoot; skipped on the free pizza and headed out. It was Jamie’s longest race/run EVER, so congrats to Jamie!! She’s signed up for the Dallas Half Marathon in December with me! =)
Five & Dime Run
May 12, 2012
Time: 1:38:59.86
Pace: 9:53/M
Age group: 4/12
Overall: 72/149
TANGLED SHOESTRINGS 