Ok, I'm tired, I thought, as I crossed the line of the Crystal City Twilighter-the last of the string of summer races I ran between May and July. For some reason, when driving to the race, I made a wrong turn and drove to Alexandria and had to turn around. I guess that's why I left so early. Thankfully Nate steered me in the right direction and got to the start just in time to pick up my packet and warm up with the GRC team. Right before the start, thunder clouds started rolling in. Uh oh, I thought, Nate cheerfully said "This is going to be fun!" on the warm-up. It ended up raining lightly before the race which actually cooled off the heat a little bit. The Crystal City Twilighter was quite competitive, dozens of guys sprinted in front of me from the start. I paced myself to a 4:57 first mile, just about where I wanted to be, then fell off pace quite a bit. I'm not gonna lie- I was dissapointed to slow down to 10:24 at the 2mile split. I was hoping to run 15:55 but I knew that wasn't going to happen at the rate I was going. I tried to focus and just ran what I could, I split 15:55 for the 3rd mile, and finished up in 16:31. My best time out of the three 5ks I've run this summer, but not what I was hoping for. I hate the 5K, honestly, I have never ever had a good race in the 5K. But I ran it for a reason. After the race, I ran a 20 min cooldown with some of the guys, had a good conversation with Dickson about Marathon training, and found Beth who was waiting very patiently for me. Getting out of the parking lot was a hassle, and it took a long time since Crystal Drive was still closed. As we neared toward home, for some unknown reason 270/495 came to a halt. Apparently something was seriously going wrong, and later would find out the ALL of 270 was CLOSED. There was no sign indicating this as we were merging to 270, so it was one big waste of time. Good thing Beth suggested to go on 495 and loop around, because that's when we saw everyone trying to merge away from 270. Of course, when I finally got home, the power was out. Greaaat.. All right, enough of that..
I think it all hit me at once, all 7 races I did between May and July. I did this for a reason though. We all know I am not a 5k runner. I am a Marathoner. I did this to toughen me up. To get my legs bulletproof. All of these races are geared towards one goal: getting stronger in the Marathon. The results from May-July are below:
May 16-Germantown 5M: 28:02
June 7-Capital Crescent 5K- 16:42
June 13-Lawyers Have Heart 10K- 34:58
June 20-Baltimore 10.2 Miler- 58:02(56:53 10 Mile)
July 4-Autism Speaks 5K- 16:48
July 18-Rockville Twilighter 8K- 26:52
July 25-Crystal City 5K- 16:31
Overall I am happy with the results and my training and fitness are progressing in the right direction. Now I am glad to take off a much needed vacation from racing as well as work. I am going to the Outer Banks to get in a strong week of mileage this week. It will be hot, but again, will get me stronger. I am not racing anymore until September. This will be good, 6 solid weeks of training, then a real good test of fitness at the VA Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon on Sept 6.
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