Thursday, August 26, 2010

Tour de Pain

Thursday night was the final August cross country 5k race, but with a twist! My original hatred of XC started with this exact race when I ran it back in 2005. Its name speaks for itself and it is a killer workout!

Tour de Pain:
XC 5k followed by
1 miler follower by
400m uphill

I ran the 5k course in the beginning of August in 23:27 so I was looking to improve on that time and hopefully come in under 23 minutes.

At the start I found a woman from the running group, who I also ran with at the last race and I decided to try and stay with her for the beginning. She paced us beautifully through the first mile and then I took over on the trails. We started reeling in the people in front of us and passing them. I was tired but my legs just kept turning over and I never reached the point where I wanted to quit.

I pulled into the finish in (unofficially) 22:52! I was so happy with the XC 5k PR!

After waiting for everyone to finish, we headed to the mile start line. The whole race took place in a local park - the same place we did our Tuesday night group workout this week. The mile started straight uphill and at the top of the hill you run a loop around and then back down. It was a great run - the sun was setting and we were at the highest point in the city! What a great view!

I finished the mile in (unofficially) 6:19!

We walked over to the 400m start and by now it was almost 8pm and getting dark! The 400m race course starts out flat but then starts going uphill, and then gets even steeper! My quads were burning as I basically ran straight up!

The 400m finish in (unofficially) 85 second!

This time around (compared to 2005) I had such a great experience. Now XC really isn't my thing, but I did enjoy the challenge and meeting a lot of great people! I ended up coming in 3rd in the open women's divison and got a nice new running hat, t-shirt and sweat shirt!!

Now its time to get some rest!! Have a great weekend!!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

speedy!
good job!

Mike Russell said...

Holy crap those are some fast times. And have you tried digital scrapbooking? My wife has just transitioned to it and swore she would never buy another sheet of paper again.

abbi said...

Congrats on the great new time!

Johann said...

Well done! That’s very good times for everything. Congrats on the 5k PR!

teacherwoman said...

Wow! You sure kicked that 5K's butt! nice work!

Anonymous said...

tour de pain. hahah. i like it :)

great job! want to travel to me and kick my butt?! kthnx :)

Marlene said...

Sounds like this was a fun and different experience... congrats on the awesome race times!!

No Longer Using said...

tour de AWESOME! seriously!!! congrats!!! you pulled it all out and fabulouslyyyyyyyyyyyy! speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed! (and yes i do remember when we were struggling with pace! :) time to rolllllllllllllllll with the speeeeeeeeeeeeeed).

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

wow! nice times!

Amy said...

What a cool event! You totally rocked it! Way to go!!

Aron said...

um yah that does sound painful... nice job girl!!

Andrew Opala said...

great job ... but I think I know this race ... after the uphill piece there are snipers shooting at you, then you have to carry refrigerators through an obstacle course ... or maybe that's battle of the network stars on ABC ... dunno

Molly said...

what!? you are amazing with your speed!

Unknown said...

That's so fast! Well done on beating your PR!

Chelsea said...

Awesome job, speed demon. Way to improve over last time. That sounds like a killer course.

Meghan said...

WOWOWOWWOW! Your mile is so super amazing!!! Congrats!

Jamie said...

Way to go speedy!! You did fantastic!!!

Nicole said...

nice job speedy!!!!!! :) :) :)

Fruit Fly said...

Very impressive!!

Anonymous said...

I am late to posting but wow! You are amazing! :)