Badger Cove Recap!!

Yesterday, Julie and I ran at Del Valle in the Badger Cove 5K and 10K races. My sister-in-law Maegan and her dad Charlie decided to tag along and run in the 5K with me. Cool!! We were cutting it a little close on time for Julie to make her race. You can read about her race adventure here.  We got there with just enough time for her to sign in and use the potty and get to the line. And she was off. They start the longer races first so everyone gets back to the finish around the same time. So I'm waiting around for my race to start, and the butterflies are starting to fly. I had to keep telling myself "just run your race, and your pace and you'll be ok." The gun goes off and I'm running. Maegan and Charlie were only with me for a short time. I told them I was going to slow my pace up a bit so I could run the whole way, and just go on and not let me hold them up. Well, it turned out the other way around I was running a slower pace than I usually run but, I had to get into my groove. I had to pass several people that had started walking like right after the race started. Before I knew it I was a ways ahead of them. The trail had some moderate hillclimbs which was littered with "landmines a.k.a. road apples a.k.a. cow poop" thrown in just to make it interesting!! When I got to the inclines I would kinda "throw it into low gear" and just chug along up the hill. Once at the top, I'd use the downhill to catch up. I saw a lot of people holding back going downhill, and I was like, why?? I love downhill. I can haul ass downhill. I could open up my gait a little and slow down my cadence all while gaining speed. Then back to my short, rapid strides to go uphill. I made it to the 2.5 mile mark again before I started to struggle. I think I need to start skipping the water at the aid stations, it seems to throw me of my groove when I take it. Because right after the water stations is when I start struggling. I was heading up the last hill when my legs decided to take a timeout. I can't really explain what happens, but my leg muscles hit their redline and I can't make them move even if I wanted to. They just stiffen up. I've had this happen to me while on the bike too!! Usually when I'm climbing really steep hills. After I walked the last bit up the hill, I started off again to the finish. Once I got within the last 100 yards I turned on the afterburners and sprinted to the finish. I still had a decent finishing time of  35:38 and 11th in my age group. Not too shabby for me on this trail. I was only a minute slower than my last race which was much flatter than this one. After I finished, collected my medal, and grabbed a cup of water, I waited for Maegan and Charlie to finish their race. I didn't realize I was as far ahead of them as I was. (nearly 10 minutes) after that  we waited for Julie to finish her 10K. My phone was acting up and went dead before I could get a pic of her crossing the finish line. All in all a great day. I got to get out in the fresh air and beautiful countryside and spend time in great company.