Sunday, September 26, 2010

Corrida de Corrales 5K Race Report

Last night we went to an Oktoberfest party. Carb loaded on brats, homemade pretzels, spatzle, gurkensalat, and too many desserts to name. What? That's not the most healthy pre-race dinner? NOW you tell me...

The race venue is maybe a 10 minute drive from my house, so I set the alarm for 6:40. And hit the snooze button once before getting up. No rush, it was an 8am start time.

Wasn't quite sure how to dress. I knew that the race was starting on a shady dirt surface along the acequia. It was a bit chilly in the shade (57deg), but would be much warmer in the sun if the route went took us off that path. Decided to go with capri tights and a sleeveless shirt. Turned out to be a perfect choice for the 5K. Roughly half of the race was on the dirt, and half was on the road in the sun. Love the dirt portion. The surface was uneven and I had to occasionally duck for branches. So much fun! The part on the road was in the sun and not so much fun. [I think I may be a trail runner at heart, and need to seriously think about adding real trail races into my schedule. More on that later]

The power of adrenalin never ceases to amaze me. I managed to run the 5K in 29:51 which by my calculations is roughly a 9:37 pace, something I haven't seen in training anytime recently. Plus it was a good 40 sec faster than my 5K in Feb. [Wow. Where did that speed increase come from?] It put me at 5th F40-49. Very pleased about that. [edit: 1st overall F was in the 40-49 AG, so she was removed from AG results, so I ended up being recorded as 4th in my AG]

Now some photos!

First up, a poor camera-phone self portrait. I did capture the whole ensemble post race as part of my photo project, but you'll have to wait on that.

Tables set up with post race goodies: water, apples, green chile cheese bread, cinnamon raisin bread, juice.


They gave us flags at the finish line. Here's a photo of my shadow holding mine. The wind blew the flag into the photo just as I took it, I think it turned out pretty cool.

I stayed to cheer on the remaining 5K and 10K racers. This last one is just a random photo of the finish area.


All in all, it was a really fun event. I'm glad I signed up for this one and hope to do it again next year!

21 comments:

  1. Great job! Love the pictures. Also loved the fact you stayed for the late finishers! We at the end of the pack appreciate that.

    Great time!

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  2. Congrats on your ever-increasing speediness!

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  3. Congrats on your great time and getting out there!

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  4. That's speedy! Good job!
    Hmm... green chile cheese bread and raisin bread? My favorite kind of post race food. Seriously. I can eat a thing of bread by itself.
    I like the flag photo. I think it has a nice composition.

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  5. that oktoberfest sounds amazing!! Congrats on the great 5K!

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  6. Yay! Well done! And what a great day for you :)

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  7. Congrats to you Lisa! You look so happy:) See, all of that hard work paid off!

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  8. I need to try that pre race meal! good job!

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  9. obviously there is some merit to that pre-race meal! congrats lisa :)

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  10. congratulations! great time you got there =)

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  11. Very impressive! Perhaps a combination of easing back into running and that great carb-load meal helped? Congrats! 5th place AG is fabulous.

    Oh yeah, Oktoberfest is just around the corner here.

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  12. Great job on the 5K! It's surprising how much faster we can run in races compared to training runs. I think much of the credit goes to the supporters that cheer us on! :)

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  13. Wow, you really turned it on for this race! Congrats!!

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  14. After all you've been through, you almost landed on the podium?!? Superb!!

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  15. Great work at the race!! love the photos too.

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  16. Congrats on a speedy 5K and doing so awesome in your age group!

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  17. Congrats! you came a long way back from your knee injury without skipping a beat!

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  18. Great job on the 5k!
    I love that flag photo -- very cool.

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