4TW5K Race Report!

Yesterday was the race I've been training for like a mad woman!  4 The Wounded 5K is a race I've done for the past four years and I was going to make this year the best time ever!  (and beat the hubby's course record)

This race is one of the TOUGHEST races I do every year.

First of all it's in June, which is very iffy here in Virginia.  It could range from 60-100 degrees easily.

It has two different courses, one trail, one road.  I've always chosen the trail.

It has a very long hill after a very long downhill (you run down first really fast, then turn around and run back up it!!)

Trails freak me out a bit and we had a few rainy days last week and all I kept thinking about was that the trail was going to be muddy and slick (like my last trail race which ended horribly and resulted in a broken bone)

But it's for a good cause.  100% of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project, which I've said in the past is a cause near and dear to me.  This year just the participants raised $117,000.  Final numbers will be announced later this week.

So yesterday I woke up and it was a beautiful sunny day around 65 degrees!  Woo Hoo!

I was feeling excited to beat my old PR (27:24) and to beat the hubby's course record (27:01).

Let me tell you...beating a 27:01 on a trail is no joke.  I've been trying to beat him for 2 years!

I brought in an expert for this race (my friend/coach) and she wrote me a training plan to beat him.  Of course her comment was, "You will run fast, but you are crazy and you do crazy races, so hopefully you will beat the hubby"

So I did what she said.  Most days I liked her, on speed work days (Tuesdays) I hated her, like cursed her most of the way...in my head because I had no air left in my lungs to actually say the words.

But then yesterday something happened.

I ran fast.

Really fast.  (For a trail race)

I ran down the hill super fast...like a 7:43 pace.  This is the ONLY consistent mile on road.

Then I turned around and ran up hill only to be met with the trail at the top of the hill.  Ugh.

Every year I run this race I think to myself, "Why in the hell do I subject myself to this pain?'

Then I think to myself of all the soldiers that don't have legs or arms.  Soldiers that have PTSD.  I've never been to war but I'm so thankful for those that do.

Then all the pain goes away.

So I ran.  And I ran hard.  I ran as fast as my legs would let me.  I breathed as deep as my lungs would allow.  And I ran.  I owned that course.  I made it my bitch.

And I won (so I didn't actually win any awards, but I won bragging rights)

I ran a 26:46...ON A TRAIL!!!  I was in beast mode.  An 8:39 pace...on a trail.

My fear of trails have somewhat subsided...for now.

So it's official.

I finally beat the hubby's course PR.

Finally.

Me and the hubby.  Matching shirts...yes.

Steph and I, no matching shirts.