Oktoberfest 5K Race Report

Hey everyone!! I accidentally cleared out my entire Google Reader inbox (about 50 posts I was behind on), so apologies for not wishing people luck, congratulating people on races well done, and enjoying all your pics from recent happenings! Grrr....I've got to think before I click. Also, if you're a silent stalking blogger leave me a comment with a link to your blog. I'm looking for some new adds. A lot of my links are dead now, or rarely post anymore. I'm planning a template overhaul and all the deadbeats are going to go away soon.....

So anyway....back to the subject at hand. I did everything right leading up to Saturday's 5k....sort of. In hindsight if I truly, truly wanted to set a new PR there were a few things I would've NOT done. Like 2 a day workouts all week - probably not the smartest thing if you really want to PR. During Thursday's run I knew my legs were tired, but of course I still worked out on Friday. Honestly, burning calories and staying active, and getting in the pool 4-5 times per week and pushing myself there are more important to me than a 5K PR.

The race was only a couple of miles from our house and we were able to run down and get my bib and shirt the night before so that on race morning I'd only have to get my chip. Naturally my stomach wasn't too happy Saturday morning and once I got my chip I decided to get in the porta-pot line. For 1200 people there were 2 johns. 2. At 20 mins until race time we got in line, and in regular Rachel fashion I made it up to the pot right at 2 minutes until the gun. And then I realized that (of course) there was no toilet paper. Why would there be??? And what I really had to do.....really required some paper. Oh well. That was sort of when I realized it was going to be a long race.

I jumped out of the john, thanked my lucky stars I was wearing black shorts, gave Brent a smooch and got in the pack. As I was finding my spot I ran into a friend of ours that we literally haven't seen since this race last year! He asked my projected pace and when he told me he wanted to break 20 I told him I'd see him at the finish!! The gun went off, I got an elbow in the face from some giant who doesn't understand that people don't run until you make it to the mat, and eventually I was off. The weather was absolutely perfect - 50-something, but my body is just not used to perfect. Give me hot and sunny and I know what to do, but perfect??? Seriously, my legs just couldn't move. A 5K is the only distance I actually warm up for, and all my warm up time was wasted in the bathroom line. I just couldn't move, it's like I didn't even know how to run. Up the first incline we went and I heard J yell out to me to "push it"!! That made me want to push it.....but I just didn't have it.

We headed through the neighborhoods and I was trying to pick it up but my stomach was sooo unhappy and even though my legs were starting to wake up I just felt bad. I'd try to pick up the pace and then my stomach would counter that decision. Ugh. I made it through the first mile in 7:45 but I knew that wasn't going to last. Heading back past the start I grabbed some water hoping that would help....not so much. Up another incline and we were finally headed into the Farmer's Market, my fave part of the race!! As soon as we were inside the building all the smells of the ethnic foods cooking at the various stands hit me like a hot oven and I literally had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from puking. It was that bad....and I was so upset because I love running through there!! I made it out of the building and knew we were getting close to finish, and I knew I might be able to make it under 25 mins so I tried to push as much as my stomach would let me. When we made the final turn at 5th for the finish line I knew I only had 2 more blocks to run and I gave it all I had. I never saw Brent but he got some pictures of my final sprint. He said I looked pretty angry so he knew I must've had a hard time! I was just happy to see that finish line...My final time was 25:01, which ended up being good enough for 10th out of 84 in my new 30-34 division. The 30 year old ladies are FAST!

Once I crossed the line I had to walk off to the side to keep from puking....it was not pretty. Once I was a little more composed I had my chip cut and found Brent. I got my plastic beer mug, my free beer ticket and some water. We found the friend I had seen at the start line and he had rocked a 20:20 time!! After sitting around for a while (and finding a porta-pot at the festival that actually had toilet paper) I felt a lot better. I knew I hadn't placed, but I also like to stay for the awards and clap for people so we hung around and ended up chatting with our friend Keith (who works at the local running store) and his girlfriend. This was the first time he had run this race and he had no clue the top prize was an enormous beer stein. He won by several minutes, his pace was 4:57/mile. INSANE! We talked about the various prizes he usually gets for winning, and he did admit this was a pretty awesome one, and VERY unique. Personally, I'd rather have this stein than money, but Brent would rather have money. THAT'S how much I covet this stein. It's just ridiculous. Anyway, he and the female winner got to tap the keg and it was all great fun. We were so glad he won, he's such a nice guy and so incredibly friendly. All sorts of people came over to talk to him and look at the stein and he's always so nice and talkative. To me it means a lot when the top dogs mingle with us mid-packers, and take genuine interest in our running.

Once the awards ended we walked around the festival shopping at the booths and I treated myself to some baked goods at a church lady booth. The options were endless and Brent gave me $5 to spend, which I HAPPILY did. Then we bought some beer cheese soup and a reuben to split at the Mad Platter booth. We sat down to enjoy some music while we ate. Once we were done walking around the festival we walked back to the Farmer's Market. I was in dire need of some mums, and the Farmer's Market has THE BEST flowers. I got some enormous mums for $6 each. NUTS I tell you. Here's the problem - the race start and finish and in two very separate areas, it was a bit of a walk back to the car. And now we had 4 enormous mums. We each carried one on each hip and I had to stop a time or two to take a break.

From Oktoberfest we headed over to the Southern Festival of Books. We parked at the library ( we needed to return some books and I wanted some bread from the bakery next door) and walked over. We browsed the booths and I had my picture made with Clifford the Big Red Dog. We toured the CNN tour bus and as we were coming out Bobba Fett was walking down the street, so I asked if I could have my pic with him, too. He actually asked if I even knew who he was???!!!! Seriously, of course I know my Star Wars peeps!!

The rest of the weekend we went to a party at a friend's house and then Sunday we did some chores around the house, I went on a nice bike ride and we both went swimming. Good times!!

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your week and here are some more pics from last weekend!!
From the race:

What's unusual here is this couple.....We saw them before the race and here they are, in the race. She's talking on her cell phone, DURING THE RACE and he for some reason is wearing a PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon bib.












So what's weird about this one.....well, these 3 girls started so far behind everyone else that they didn't notice they were going the wrong way.....and did my husband tell them? Nope, he just laughed and took their picture. Someone else told them and he did take a picture of them going the right way.









Here's Keith right after leaving the Farmer's Market building. Brent didn't get any pics of me here since it's pretty close to the finish line. He snapped some pics of the top people and then headed over to watch me finish. I really like the mums in this pic and the reflection in the puddle.












This is a pretty pic of the runners making the curve at the end Bicentennial Mall, I thought it was really pretty with part of the skyline in the background and the state capital.








Here's the winners tapping the keg....









From the Southern Festival of Books....
Here are some of the booths on War Memorial Plaza, with the state capital in the background









Here I am trying to take down the plaza.....












And here I am with Bobba Fett!