Balloon Days 5K - Race Recap **Edited**

The Indianola Balloon Festival kicked off yesterday and part of the festivities included a small 5K run organized by the Simpson College Cross Country Team. Some of the people from my running group run this race every year. I've always declined.... It's at 7:00pm (I don't run at night) it's always beastly hot (I don't run well in the heat) and I haven't been drawn to the idea of a 5K. Maybe I also didn't want to "compete" against my friends, who I know are faster than me.

This year I decided each and every one of those reasons was a silly reason not to run. Plus I was a little bit curious what my straight up 5K pace might be.

The past few weeks I've really let the speed work slide as miles accumulate in marathon training. My pace, that improved quite a bit this Spring, was sliding a bit. I had a couple of so-so runs and was feeling sort of discouraged, a little burned out. Not the best frame of mind to enter a race - even a small one.

My goal for the 5K was to keep my pace at 9 min/mile or slightly below as long as I could. I hoped to come in around 27:00 minutes. I was afraid I might not be able to do that. In a stroke of good fortune, after downright tropical temps and humidity, the temperature at race time was in the low 80's. I knew lots of people there. I lined up with a couple of friends, plugged in my iPod and set off on a familiar course around town.

I stayed shoulder to shoulder with my running friend Megan (who is also signed up for the Twin Cities marathon) - we've covered a lot of miles together this summer. She is younger than me, her pace a click or two faster, but I decided to stay with her as long as I could. A glance at my watch showed an 8:30/mile pace but I felt pretty good.

The first two miles clicked off very quickly, easily in fact. About 2 1/2 miles into the race there is a long-ish climb that I tackled well, but when I got to the top I felt spent. Megan moved ahead and my pace dropped to about 8:40-8:45/mile. A quick turn of the corner and a nice downhill to the finish and I got a little burst of energy.

**Edited to add my official results **

Finish time: 26:43** (Edited to reflect official time) - my watch was one second off.

Average pace: 8:24/mile

Age group place: 4th out of 21 **

Overall place: 14th out of 62 women **

There were a total of 145 participants, but they only did results by gender.

I am the tiniest bit bummed because the top 3 finishers in my age group all finished between 26:10-26:35. Couldn't I have kicked it in just a little more?! BUT they were all in their early 30's. I would have won my age group if I could have run as a 40 year old. :)

The race was a total blast, a nice confidence booster and I will probably do it again next year when I can compete as a 40 year old!