heart & sole very tired

today was the 5K. i was nervous this morning.

nervous? what's up with that? as if i had any chance of actually winning.

i was also very concerned about the cold. the predicted high was a mere 59 and overcast. i only brought workout shorts. yikes!

the sun was peeking through a little by start time, but it was still darn cold. cold enough, in fact, that my nose was dripping like a faucet. i couldn't take more than 5 strides without snot sliding down my face. since i didn't want to look disgusting (for the footage the company was capturing) i used the tissue i had had the foresight to jam in my pocket. how clever of me to be prepared. how foolish of me to not be prepared enough--i could have used a whole box!

this situation was one of the many things that threw me off track. the snot made it difficult to breathe through my nose, which is, of course, the proper way to control your breathing. breathing through my mouth caused cottonmouth and my throat to feel like it was closing up. it was distracting to have to clear my nose constantly, though. also, the cold affected my body. it took half the course for my body heat to thaw out my arms from the elbow down. and another factor was pacing. i usually only run on a treadmill, which sets the pace for me. i don't know what 4.5 mph feels like on the road. i didn't feel like i was going much faster than usual, but who knows how the temperature skewed my perception. i must have been going faster than usual, however, because i finished in 34:15. and i didn't even run the whole course! i figured i walked roughly half a mile of the supposed 3.1 mile course. the superfast time to completion made me suspect that the course planners were a little stingy (or generous?) in their layout.

i later drove the path and came up with approximately 2.8 miles. ah-ha! just as i suspected.

overall, i'm happy with how i performed under the conditions. i didn't manage to run the whole thing, which was my initial goal, but i did complete it in decent time. i definitely have a target for next year.

for now, i'm not running for at least a week. in fact, i don't think i'm going to the gym at all for the rest of this week.