Dashing through the snow

Last week was the first week of Dash and Dine 5K.  It's a series of six 5K races on Tuesday at 6:30pm around Boulder Reservoir.  It is a great way to warm up towards the summer, but to our surprise, this race had nothing "warm" about it.

First, it was the first day after the Boston bombs, so people were angry about it.  We did have a few moments of silence for those affected by the bombings.  Lots of people were wearing Boston gear too.  That was cool.  Secondly, it was 34 degrees, and there was SO MUCH SNOW.

This is how Boulder Rez looks like during the winter (or Spring, whatever)

The race started at 6:30pm sharp.  There were 70 people present to dash and dine.  I'm always intimidated by these small Boulder races since you're usually up against very fast people.  Regardless, I gave it my all.

The first mile is uphill and always the challenge.  Once on the dams, it was snowy and incredibly muddy.  I hit my first mile in under 8 min/mile.  That was fast but unfortunately I couldn't maintain the pace.  The second mile was long, the turn around point must've been slightly off... and the second mile was my longest.  I started to feel tired, but I believe I've worked hard enough the past year to realize that I can push through pain much better than I used to.  I relaxed and kept going.  My garmin said mile 3, but seems like I was still a tenth of a mile away from the mile marker and I was.  Therefore, by the time I crossed the finish line, I had run my fastest 3.2 mile 5k.  Well, I must confess, this was my fastest 5k regardless of the extra tenth of a mile, I just didn't realize it until I got back to my computer.

I was happy with the results, which put me 7th overall women, 4th in my age group.  Whoa... TOP 10 IN BOULDER?  That's a new one.

I'm now hoping I can beat that in the next few weeks!