About a week ago, Jason and Nacho mentioned to me that they were going to be running the Skirt Chaser 5k this weekend, and of course, I promptly invited myself to join them 🙂 I’ve been really wanted to do an other 5k since my last one was in November and I really wanted a PR! The problem? Well that course was short! I finished and my garmin said 3.02! That was super awesome at the time, but it makes trying to come in better scary! Also, the Skirt Chaser started at 2pm with a weather forecast of 80 degrees. Yikes! I figured I would go for a PR, and at the very least it would be a fun race with awesome people.
After I discovered that Carolyn was going to be in town for it, I got her to sign up as well. You see, if I’m doing a race, I want every single friend I have to sign up for it too. Some might call that pushy, but I like to think of myself as highly motivating 😉
Before the race, I met up with Jason and Nacho at REI to look for some new shoes. Okay, so perhaps I know buying new shoes right before a race is not super smart, but I had been REALLY needing them, and so did Jason, so it just kind of happened to work out that way. Jason, Nacho and I all ended up picking pairs of Brooks. I got the Brooks Ravenna and so far, I am in so much love!
The Nikes I’d been sporting were a neutral shoe, which the people at Road Runner that analyzed my running suggested I needed for my “medium arch”. Well, that was the first time anyone has ever referred to my arch as medium. My feet are almost flat, and because of that I have a lot of problems with pronating. My physical therapist has been on me to get new shoes for a while, so I used some birthday money to finally get it done.
Steve, Jason, Nacho and I arrived at the race really early because I still needed to register (I have a procrastination problem), and found some shade to hang under while we waited for the rest of the group.
Soon after, Carolyn arrived and then a big group of Jason’s work friends arrived as well.
Cool things about this race?
- You get a skirt!!! See my cute new purple skirt? Way better than a shirt!
- You get 2 beer tickets, and a food ticket! Okay, for $60, honestly you better get some clothes and some beer!
- The girls start 3 minutes before the guys and whoever crosses the finish line first is considered the winner.
- It was a girl.
When it got close to starting time, Carolyn and I made our way towards the middle/front area of the start. As soon as the race started, I darted around people trying to find my own space, and unfortunately lost Carolyn right away. I had this super awesome race strategy to do run the first mile at around 9:10-9:15, and the rest of the race sub 9. Then the race started down hill, and I turned into stupid racing Ari and ran as fast as I could, and was already breathing heavy a quarter mile in. I looked down at my garmin at one point in that first downhill section and it said my pace was 6 something! Ummm, too fast! Cannot maintain AT ALL!
We had barely gotten to the bottom of the first downhill, when we were going back up again. My pace slowed to about 9:30, but I was still pushing soooo hard. I realized pretty quickly that the entire 3.1 miles was going to be up and down and got even more worried about my ability to PR. Seriously, afternoon race, 80 degrees AND HILLS?! What are you trying to do to me here?!
I finished the first mile in 8:34. Awesome, right? Well, it would be if that was something I could maintain for 3 hilly miles. Mile to was in the 9:20s, then mile 3 was slightly better at 9:11. By the middle of mile 3, I had almost given up on the idea of a PR and just wanted to still finish under 30 minutes, but once I got closer to the finish line, I looked down at my garmin and was surprised to realize this whole PR business was actually still doable. I kicked it into gear, ran the last tenth of a mile at about a 6:20 pace (basically my sprint), and finished with a PR of 27:56!!
Not a huge difference from 28:04 which was my official time for the Undy, but considering the hills, heat, and extra tenth of a mile, it was actually a pretty big difference!
After the race, we all got our free beers and hung out for a while drinking, and listening to the band.
The weather felt perfect once we weren’t running in it! This was definitely a super fun race. Pretty pricey, and not very good in the cheer leading department, but I still had a really good time!
Corrie Anne says
Fun race!!!!!!!!! Skirts can cost $60 sometimes so it was probably worth it. I love it!
diana says
I am so jealous. This race has been on my list to do for quite some time. Next year for certain!
Lindsay @ The Skipping Pixie says
NICE job girl! Have any other races coming up??
Ari says
I’m looking at Tri for the Cure on March 25th and Pat’s Run in April–what about you??
Jessica Washburn says
Sounds way fun. I found out about this the night before it happened, unfortunately, I had stuff going on. Dang. Maybe next year. Hey, are you still planning a blog meet up on March 10th? Let me know. 🙂 Jessica
Ari says
Yes! We will be sending out an email soon with all of the details 🙂