Free races are the best thing ever! This one had no registration, no chips, no bibs- just a start, end, and a clock to keep time. Lots of people with dogs, strollers, or both, lots of kids, some scooters and bikes....just a good time. Being on the base, there was definitely some good competition. I found myself pre-judging every runner I saw trying to figure out if they were going to be super fast or not. It's a little game that I'm not very good at. You just can't judge a runner by what they're wearing or what size they are. It took us a few seconds I'm saying it was around 5 to get to the start. It was downhill for the first half, then right back uphill for the second half. Uphills in the end are tough for me! I wasn't warmed up enough to take full advantage of the great downhill at the start either. I thought it was cold, despite the people wearing t-shirts and shorts! As I was approaching the turn around, I could see the leaders running back. I started looking for women... it took a while to see the first one. She looked like an athlete! I gave her a nod- she was doing great! I counted 8 other females in front of me, and one girl on a scooter who had rolled all the way downhill. I ended up passing 3 of the females on the hill back up, then we had 1 lap on the track to finish the run. There was a lady in front of me that had a 10 miler shirt on who had passed me early in the race, and a girl right behind her. My initial goal was to pass the girl behind her, but she took off like a rocket after 1/4 of the lap... so I worked on overtaking the 10 miler lady. She was running with her husband, who was pushing a stroller. He was on the inside lane, and she was in the 2nd lane. I had to sprint out and around both of them, but I did it just before the last turn and beat her! Not that I had anything against her, I just wanted to get in front of someone, and she was the one. So I think I passed 4 females total, which would have put me at 4 or 5, but I have no way of confirming this. It just doesn't matter. My time was better than any of my other 5K times, so I won the competition with myself, and that's what really pleases me. I was sure that last mile+ that was all uphill was going to put me over an 8mm, but it didn't. I was really happy I could keep my pace fairly constant even with the hill. I have my splits for the first 3 miles, but not the last .1 because even though I pushed my watch, and I swear I heard it beep, it never stopped. Go figure. All splits were in the 7:50s, and I ran faster that last little bit trying to overtake the other lady. Good stuff all together. The clock said 24:04 when I went under it, but I know it was at least 4 or 5 seconds for me to get to the start, so I'm giving myself a 24:00. Good SWAG after: chickfila mini sliders, free coupons, fruit, granola bars, raffles, t-shirts for the first 100 finishers, thumb drives, water bottles & canisters, WWE people to sign & get autographs from (but I don't know who they are and care even less, so I didn't bother), bags, blankets, and lots of little things. We also got free santa hats to run in: And just for Brent, I'll end with the slogan that was printed on our t-shirts: GO ARMY - BEAT NAVY!!
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