Fairhaven Runners Waterfront 15K

What a fun race! This was my first year doing the 15K and I had a great time.

I allowed myself ample time to grab a coffee, find parking, grab my packet, pee, etc. I hate being rushed on race days. The weather couldn't have been better - sunny with a slight cool breeze - a perfect Bellingham morning.

 Have to have my coffee and H2O

Fairhaven Village Green

You can see from my times below that I started off pretty fast, well, fast for ME. I was pacing off my friend Christie because I knew she could hold around an 8:30 pace the entire time. The first 6 miles FLEW by and that's when I started to think "how much farther?" thoughts. When I start to think like this it means I'm getting tired. Holding those sub 9:00 paces were catching up with me. I took at Hammer Gel at mile 6 - vanilla! Yum!

I lost Christie at about mile 7 and realized I would not be able to make my 1:20 goal. This goal was unrealistic. I chose that time based off of 9 miles not the additional .3 I had to run.  Although I knew I wouldn't make 1:20, I still pushed as hard as I could to finish near that time. I had a lot of luck choosing someone to pace off of and then eventually passing them - this seemed to keep me going.

I sprinted toward to the finish line and was done. Just like that. The whole event felt SO quick. That's the great part of organized races, right? They seem to fly by compared to training runs.

Mile splits:

Mile 1: 8:31
Mile 2: 8:30
Mile 3: 8:19
Mile 4: 8:35
Mile 5: 8:51
Mile 6: 9:08
Mile 7: 9:30
Mile 8: 8:59
Mile 9: 9:13
Mile 9.3: 8:45
Total: 1:22:24

These times are off my Garmin. I'll be curious to see what my official chip time is.

Had a few friends do the race too and everyone did great. I hung out with Diana from Diana-Tries-a-Tri for a bit too.

Pre-race with Diana

Finish area

Dang hat shades my face so well you can't see me..I guess that is what it's supposed to do...

Me and Diana after race

Now I'm blogging in my UW shirt (GO DAWGS!) and sporting my new compression sleeves. I'm curious to see how well they help me recover. Are they supposed to be super duper tight? Cause mine aren't and I got the smallest size...

I'm headed BACK down to Seattle for my Aflac Iron Girl 5k tomorrow. I love these back to back races! Let's see if my legs do... Have a good Saturday