25 Seconds

22:24

25 seconds from my goal of a sub-22. 

This is a new 5k PR for me by about 20 seconds but it is bittersweet.
While I am happy with how I raced overall today, I did not meet my primary goal of sub-22 so I have a hard time celebrating the PR. It's deflated.

Where could I have improved to be 25 seconds faster?

It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool. I like cool for running. There was some pretty good wind out there today but overall, it was a good day to run.

Mile one was awesome...sub-7 and I was feeling good. Mile 2 was into the wind and a very mile sloping upward jaunt, nothing bad but I knew my pace dropped to 7:07 (I believe that was my mile 2 split...my Garmin is in my friends truck) and mile 3 I landed half-on/half-off the edge of the curb and twisted my ankle a bit (I'm fine, my shoe has more damage than I do) and that slowed me down for a SECOND. I kept running.
Funny thing...the only thing that really bothered me were my forearms! In my note to Coach Awesome, I had to laugh while I told her about it. I must have had my little fists balled up into fists of fury because they were on fire!!

RUN ON....

I know when I rounded the corned and could finally make out the time on the clock I could make out 21:xx...I ran and ran and ran and watched it tick over to 22:00 and I think my heart broke a little.
But I'd be dammed if I was going to let that stop me from from finishing this as strong as I could.

No excuses. 

I did my best. I did PR by 20 seconds. But I did not meet my goal but I will battle on and fight for the sub-22 another day. I just need to run faster. I know that  most of my running has been base building HR training but I am still disappointed that I did not achieve my goal.

The best part of the day? My training partner PR'd by over a minute. My good friends, Dawn and Stephanie came out to cheer me on (and they weren't even running).

I got to hang out with my tri club peeps!!
I got to Rock the Rev 3 R at the first race of the season!!





 I got to see so many friends and got to meet Dailymile buddy, Pauline.


 I got to cheer on my friend's little girl as she raced to the finish!

Then this made me realize that I am one lucky gal to have the friends I have-


Dear bestie,
You rock. You PR and you still want more. Did you give everything? You gave everything you had today. Next race....who knows? Without a whole lot of speed training, you gave everything your legs would allow. This 5k is not your finish line. You have a race with a whole bunch of hills that is calling for your best. Don't lose sight of that. You know coach awesome would say the same.
Proud of you girlfriend.:)