Get Lucky 7k

On Saturday, Team Ortho hosted the 2nd annual Get Lucky 7k. It was tons of fun!

But before I get to the race recap, I have to tell you about the volunteer experience. I signed up to volunteer at the packet pick up. I love meeting all the other runners and chatting with them. I only signed up to work on Thursday because I didn't want to be standing for a long period of time the day before the race.

When I went to my station at the series table I was greeted by a fellow Minnesota runner and blogger Richelle. She is super sweet and has a great blog that you should go check out! I was so excited to meet her because I just found her blog a couple weeks before. Volunteering was fun. I was in charge of directing people to line up by size when picking up their sweatshirts. Yes, we got amazing zip front sweatshirt from this race! I will post a picture later of the sweatshirt.

Race Recap

No photos yet. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel at the race because I haven't gotten in as much running as I would like lately. It seems like I should have a bunch of time to run but this semester is kicking my butt (dissertation are stressful). In addition to that my heel has been bothering me for the past month (perhaps plantar fasciitis). I will talk about that another day.

The race started at 10am. I always overdress for this race so I told myself to wear less but it didn't work. I still wore tights, long sleeve shirt, pullover, hat and gloves. Bad idea because I was way too warm. I don't run with my ipod but I decided that I wanted to race with it because I figured I was going to need something to keep my mind off the fact that I was running and not actually racing.

I did a 1.5 mile warm up, some leg swings and a few strides. I position myself about 5 rows back from the starting line. There are about 5,000 runners at this race. The race starts. I tell myself to stay relaxed and hold back. Sometimes I go a little crazy the first mile and pay for it the rest of the race. Just before mile 1 a guy cuts me off and starts running right in front of me. I get annoyed because there was plenty of other places to go but instead he has to disrupt my stride. So i put in a quick surge and fly past him. Then I see 2 women in front of me and think I have to pass these 2 so I did. Mile 1 = 6:26. Then I settle into a rhythm and just go. I keep expecting to have some women come flying past me or to see one in front of me. I cross mile 2 in about 6:38. I start to think I better slow down. I am starting to hurt. Why is running to hard? Why do I do races? I just want to be done but I am not even halfway yet. Okay just run. I see 2 police officers at the corner. I am hoping that I will know one of them from the work that I have been doing with the MPD. Yeah, I do know them! They both cheer for me by name. It always helps to have someone yell for you in the middle of a race. Mile 3 = 6:40. I hit the 5k mark and think only 2k to go, I can do this. Just go and don't get passed. My headphone fall out of my ears...I am too tired to put them back in so I just keep running. I am starting to run scared. I really don't want to be passed by any women now. I have managed to not get passed yet so I want to keep it that way. Mile 4 was around 6:40. I decide I don't want to push it anymore but then I think how much I don't want to be passed so I go. I just wanted to be done running. I am not ready for this kind of effort. As I am coming up the finish line the announcer say we have our 2nd women finish. What...no way! Awesome...don't get passed. I cross the finish line in 29:00 with 3rd place in 29:02 and 4th in 29:03. That was close. I am happy with my results and glad the I was able to convince myself to keep running hard. I would have been very disappoint if I had been passed right at the finish line.

Stats:
29:00 (6:40 per mile)
41/5,107 overall
2/3,668 women
1/860 age group

All of the fast Twin Cities runners raced in the Human Race today. I wouldn't have even cracked the top 50 women with a 33:09 8k.