Cross Country Race Recap (5k)

I know everyday you wake up thinking “Gosh when is Hollie going to post another race recap?”  That’s okay-I wanted to wait for one of the very few times that I can include race photos.  (I know you also wake up thinking, “where is my favorite ostrich runner”) Most cross country races (which have been the majority of my races for a while) don’t have a lot of photos being taken.

But this time I was able too snag some.

My final cross country race and I actually wore a singlet when not forced.  My brother Matt said it was unacceptable if I wore a cotton shirt at such a prestigious race.  I saw a few people doing it but then again I scoped it out.

Anyways-the race started at a nice 8am.  I haven’t done early morning races like this in a while.  I’m not complaining, I’m just saying my body just wasn’t used to running at that time.  If I was that worried about it, I would have done these last few runs at 8am, but I didn’t.

The gun went off right at 8:00am.  It was quite chilly and race attire consisted of arm warmers, gloves, head warmer, singlet and I really did layer two pairs of spandex.  I didn’t mean too but I didn’t feel like rolling with ass out spanks. I immediately took off at “my take off speed”, but as typical Hollie style I got out extremely slow.  Every.Single.Time.  Lolz.  I was probably 275/300 at this point.

As the race progressed I began my move and started to mark and drop bitches.  You can tell in any sort of 5k that I am not a speedster.  This race was really well marked by every .2k.  So there was a sign at .2k, .4….1k….3.8k…5k.  So you literally knew how far you had left the entire time.   I would tell myself pass this girl at .4k, look up and move to the next in my line of view.   In cross country races, I’m more concerned with reeling girls in versus time.  Road races are more for time, in my opinion at least.

There was a rather big hill at exactly the halfway point.  I wasn’t worried about this hill, just the extremely steep downhill.  I didn’t wear spikes either, (I wore flats) so I was so afraid my bumbling ass would topple down the side of the hill. 

I literally was like I’m not about to injure myself to shave five seconds off my time  and so I took the hill pretty conservatively.

Then I continued passing people.  The first half of the race was in woods and so I didn’t have many spectators.  If you know me well-I don’t care either way.  Screaming at me never motivates me (for both swimming or running).  I have been known to flick my swim coaches off while, I swim at get some yard punishments for that…but that is a story for another day.  The second half of the course was all in the open though.  There was no escaping the literally thousands of spectators. 

There were a lot of people that knew me (because of Matt) cheering for me which was pretty cool.  I felt like I had real life friends.  I kept pushing though and the last .25 was around a lake so I felt like I was running around in a hamster wheel.  When I came around the bend I saw the clock clicking and it was at 19:54.  I knew there was no way I’d break 20:00 minutes but I just sprinted to the end.

My final time was 20:05.  My goal was originally breaking 20 on a cross country course (I’ve done it on road quite a few times) but that was not in the cards today.  It was still an awesome race and I have no complaints.

My coach told me that it was equal to going about 19:40 on the roads.  Who knows though.  This wasn’t the hardest cross country course I have ever run, but it wasn’t a cake walk either. 

My next 5k is New Years Eve back on the roads.  Actually-that is my next race, but I would prefer to find something before that.  Either way-I should be under 20 minutes on my next road 5k and should actually be closer to 19 minutes.  We shall see where my running takes me though, always an adventure in my life.

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Question for you:

1. 1.       What is your optimal racing time?

I think mine is 11.  I do a nice shakeout run around 7:30, eat and then wait around.  I’ve always done well at that time.  Noon is too late because I’m wicked hungry. 🙂

1. 2.        Do people screaming/cheering at you motivate you?

No.  Never.  Especially in swimming though, people would tell me to make my move at the 1000 mark in the 1650, and I’d get so pissed at them because they had no idea how to swim the mile.