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(Finish of the Victory 5K this morning)

Today were the Victory Races up in Minneapolis. A 10K followed by a 5K. I'd not run these before and I'd registered for the 10K. After quite a hard workout on Saturday I took Sunday off (except for upper body lifting--I had to do something.) Tom and Alex Woo were picking me up at 5:30 AM. I was soooooo tired when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I was deep in sleep ... and as I told them as we were driving, I was having a very weird dream. Get this ... I dreamed that I had 4 nose piercings--3 on the left (studs) and a ring on the right!!

I saw Roxanne Schmitz from St. Cloud at registration. Surprise! A happy surprise.

So ... the 10K. I ran a 2 mile warm-up down Webber Ave. I was again so intimidated by the ladies I'd seen--Melissa Gacek, Sonja Anderson Decker, Kelly Keeler Ramacier, Bonnie Sons, ... I am so easily psyched out. And psyched out I was. All these racing flats ... me and my clunky trainers with rigid orthotics inside. Heavy, heavy shoes! (There was this very young, tall, thin guy doing sprints down the road. Just flying. He was the eventual winner--Josh Moen. Ran 29:30 for 4:45 pace. He was flying. Had quite a lead over second place when I saw him after the turnaround.) My legs felt sluggish and I was still yawning while warming up. But eventually I felt ready to roll after a couple quicker tenths of a mile. I hate those last minutes standing at the start line, looking around, waiting, knowing that in a matter or a minute or two I'm going to be running. Running hard. For at least 40-some minutes.

We were off down Webber Ave. A straight shot for the most part (just a gentle curve) and an out-and-back course. Mile 3 is slightly uphill and it's deceptive. Tom had told me about this (his mile 4 in the past was faster than mile 3) and it proved to be true in my splits as well. There were 2 slight problems: 1) a key attached to my left shoe. I had Tom's spare Lexus key. I'd laced the ring into the laces and the long metal part was tucked into the crossed part of the laces on top of the shoe. Between mile 2 and 3 the key came loose and was flopping all over the place, and at times hitting my right leg or the medial side of my left shoe, and maybe even the ground (it's a l-o-n-g- key!). I thought about stopping to fix it, but really didn't want to do that, so I just kept running with this thing flopping around. :-) 2) My GPS. It quit at .36 mile. I looked down at it when I thought we should be getting close to the first mile split. It read .36 for mileage. I thought oh boy ... this is going to be a long race if we'd only gone about a third of a mile. Well, I no sooner looked up and saw the one mile clock up ahead. Looked down at my GPS again and knew it had stopped. Same thing happened at my last 10K, Get in Gear. I don't think my GPS likes running 10Ks! Well I pushed start and it started up but at that point the time was meaningless as it was totally off. So I waited until I got to the 2-mile mark and reset it and started it up again. It then functioned normally. I ran comfortably hard, not all out, and was pleased when I saw the finish line clock flip from 40 to 41 minutes. I knew I was going under 42. A P.R. unless I fell down or something. My time was 41:37 and my splits were: 6:22 6:41 6:53 6:42 6:44 6:42 1:33 (for .2 mile) 6:42 pace. 3rd in my age group. Very pleased.

(Pat Brown, Alex Woo, myself and Tom Woo after the 5K)

At about 6 miles I hear "Go, Renee!" off on my right. I turn and it was my friends Lisa Hines and Anita Baugh from my St. Cloud River Runners race team. (Pictured below.) Way cool! I was so excited that they were there. Had no idea they were coming. So after I finished, I found them and did a little cool down while they warmed up for the 5K.

They were doing the 5K and they suggested that I should do it too, as Pat Brown had also suggested before the race. I thought about it for a few minutes and decided what the heck. It's only $5 and I didn't feel totally wiped out. So I went and got another number and headed back to the start line to get psyched out again. I enjoyed chatting with Andriette Wickstrom and Francine LePage

while waiting. I see them at lots of races. Shortly we were off. I knew the 5K would feel short, and that was a good thing. :-) My splits were 6:37 6:52 6:45 :36 for a 20:50 and again 6:42 pace. Another P.R. I was so pleased. "Pleased as punch" as they say, especially since I did the 5K on a whim. A very good morning. A very fun morning. Beautiful day for racing.

Thank you to Tom Woo for the photos below. :-)



2009 Victory 10K