Get Luckey 5K

Tammy and I headed down to Luckey, Ohio yesterday morning in some freshly fallen and falling snow for the "Get Luckey 5k" put on by the Toledo Roadrunners Club, which we just joined last month as a family. A friend just pointed out to me that every time I do a race there seems to be less than ideal weather. It really wasn't bad at all though. Though we didn't have a lot of miles built up prior to this race, I was fairly confident I could beat my 25:03 pr (personal record). This was the second year for this race and it was Valentine's Day themed with the women getting a 3 minute head start and men and women finishing in the same age group categories then with the first 8 finishers in each age group receiving a wine glass. We got really cute t-shirts (which I will photo and display on here in a later post) and cute ribbons.

It was about 30 degrees with light falling snow and light winds when the race started. Tammy was off first. Three minutes later, I was off. I went out entirely too fast with the crowd of very fast men and my first mile split was 7:36. I didn't even know I could run a seven and a half minute mile! When my Garmin beeped to let me know I had my first mile split and I looked, I knew I would be struggling in the next couple miles left. My plan was to have gone out at 8:00 minute pace and try to pick up at the end. I gased myself that first mile and tried to hang on into the second mile, but actually had to walk for about 30 seconds to catch my breath. I'm sure if I had my heart rate monitor on, my heart rate would have been red-lining around 180 - 190 bpm! Oops. Second mile split was 8:38 or something like that. I picked up in my last mile, caught up to Tammy with about a half mile left in the race and was shouting encouragement to her as I approached. I had a hard time catching her and was still trying to hold on to my pace.

We approached the last turn to the last quarter mile or so shortly after I passed her. I checked my Garmin and saw I was somewhere around 23:40 and was shooting for under 25:00 for the race. I starting picking up my pace till I heard a guy say 100 meters to the finish at which point I started sprinting with all I had left. I ended up finishing in 25:07, 8 seconds off my goal and 5 seconds off a pr. Tammy held off other runners and ended up finishing right behind me in 28:06, a 49 second pr for her! She had an awesome race and looked really good in the final leg as I approached her. I am so proud of her! We hung out for a bit post race, got some food, Tammy won some running socks as a door prize, and listened to the different catergory and age group winners and headed home. It was a great way to spend the morning, running a fun and good race, and an awesome way to spend the early part of my Valentine's Day with the woman that means more to me than anything! Thanks, Honey!