In which the gang takes the Harrison 5K by storm!

This is officially IT. The last time that I do some stupid, ill advised sprint on an 86 degree night up a mountain side before I marathon. However, I wanted to get this taper started on the right (wrong?) foot. HEH HEH.

Wednesday evening. 86 degrees. The end of a long, long day in the middle of an even longer week in the middle of the longest month in the history of EVER. Perhaps I exaggerate but you get the idea- we all were moaning just a bit about questionable life choices, how running is a terrible hobby for already overactive people and how perhaps we should all be sitting by the beach drinking beer instead. After the complaining hour was over we all manned up and got seriously pumped and decided to get the eff out there and kill it.

For the past 300 years this terrible twosome from Vermont have won the race on the men's and women's side of things. This is just unacceptable to me that you come in from away and steal the thunder of all of us hard working locals. When I saw VT couple out of the corner of my eye I took a page out of the book of horribly unsportsmanlike behavior and decided to kick their asses in a big way. Note to the youth of America: this is both wrong and immature. do not use me as a role model...

We look boss. Jon (Angie's hubs). Angie MY DAD, me, Kate, Dan & Sue.
This was my Dad's first race since approx 1946. He is awesome.

The course was an out and back, UP a huge hill around a little loop and back DOWN. Not a PR friendly course but that's the norm for this area of the world.

We started and immediately 5-6 ladies shot to the front setting a ridiculous pace which I kept up with because I tend to set a ridiculous pace occasionally as well. My inner monologue at this point "Well... I was planning to run 6:40's but was secretly hoping to be able to run 8:30's and still win. that's not gonna happen. why does that 6 foot tall 17 year old girl think she can beat me?? that's just absurd, I'm clearly going to take her down. OMG what is that other girl doing way out at the front of the pack? UGH I guess I have to catch her... WHERE is Vermont....?? Huh, I know where the actual state is but where is the dreaded VT runner??"

As you can see there was a lot going on in my noggin at this point. Chatty Cathy up in there...

the pace stayed very consistent throughout the race but according to my unsportsmanlike and diabolical plan I picked off the girls one by one, plus a few guys and finally reached the turn around.

Coming back towards the 2 mile mark I saw Sue, running so fast that she was burning the soles off her shoes. Hot on her heels was Dan, followed closely by Kate, Angie and My Dad (who Angie caught at the 0.5 mile and shouted at him "You're running an 8:30 pace and you need to slow down!!!") (my Dad wanted to stick to a 10:00 mile so she was right.

My inner monologue at this point on was more like this: "OK you idiot this is your race to lose don't effing blow it" WHERE is VT???" UH OH... There she is... Can she catch me? maybe. I don't like this what do I do 5k's this is stupid and dumb and so am I! UGH. UGH. there is so much sweat in my eyes that I can't see. damn VT needs to stop chasing me. I want my Mom..." OK yeah, I'm awesome.

I was able to keep ahead of her by what felt like a semi-comfortable margin but in reality was only 4 seconds, proving that 4 seconds is a LOT of space at a 6:38 pace.

So I FINALLY snagged a 5K win (in an ok 20:35) and can now happily retire...

Post race sweat. So much sweat...

Everybody else ran a kick ass race. Jon (who I did not see at all because he was hot on my heels) ran thru the finish in 22:11 which is super annoying because he barely ever runs. He also places 2nd in his age group which is (again) annoying since he claims to hate running and not be any good at it... GAHD! Sue finished in 26:30 which is just insane for her first 5K- Dan was about 20 seconds behind her. Kate ran home in 27:55 which met her goal of sub 28! Angie PR'd like a complete boss, shaving 3 or so minutes off her best 5k time and managing a solid sub 30 with 28:35! YAYYYY! And my Dad sauntered in in 31:55 looking like he had taken a casual stroll... (again, annoying!)

We were all pretty pumped. Talked a lot of smack. High fived repeatedly. Mentioned about 100 times how much we all love running so much and think that it's the best hobby ever for overactive people. Won prizes and merch. And went home to a sweet after party thanks to my excellent Mom!

And now.. Time to taper for real (or so I say today...)

Sweaty Sisters

Being Fashionable and Fast is hereditary...