King of the Hill 5K - 2013

Running Season is finally back.

I don't know about many other places, but running from June through Aug is S. FL is horrible, just horrible. Even if you get up at 7 am and hit the road, sweat is running down your ass crack before you even hit the end of the block. You are looking up at the sky thinking to yourself, dear god do I really love running this much to endure the sun beating down on me for another hour slowly dehydrating my body and turning me in to a walking mummy that will most likely disintegrate and crumble into dust around mile 8, the answer...no. So even though there are still some races...there are not a lot.

Running season here is basically Sept 1 - May 31.

This year, we started the season off again with the King of the Hill 5K...again!

Now Florida is flat...since we are at sea level and don't run many hills around here, starting the season off with a hill run (even if it is an old land fill that they turned into a park) is a rough.


My goal was to finish this bitch without collapsing halfway up the hill sobbing uncontrollably as I curled up in the fetal position and begged for my mummy. Hell, besides my casual jogs with Jake, I hadn't RUN myself in about 2 months more than just 2-3 miles at a time....this was going to be brutal.

A group of about 4 of us signed up for the torture, amazing how badly humans seek out pain and suffering upon themselves.

The race started on time, which was a blessing because as I am standing at the start line, I can feel the sun and heat coming up and peeking over the tree line. The race starts and I feel good, knockout the first hill like a boss and proceed to pass people. Some slow bitch was jog/walking and I ran into her almost knocking her over...

**Side Note - DEAR GOD PEOPLE! If you are at a race, be it 5k or full marathon, and you plan on walking and chatting with your girlfriends while you pose for pictures...GET THE FUCK TO THE BACK OF THE LINE! For F sake, what do you think...you are going to walk a 6 min mile! NO BITCH! and you may not be competative, these races are competitive so GTF out of the way and take your walking ass to the back of the line so you don't get knocked over and then run over by a crap tone of competitive runners who are trying to get a new PR...just saying**

So anywho...after almost taking down a walker, I finally find my pace again and go...I am doing pretty well and start to think to myself...hey, not to shabby, I have already KO'ed 2 of the 4 hills, I can do this and maybe even get a pretty damn good time....until we circle around and I see the beginning of the 3rd hill. Its so nice of them to set it up that you run past the hill, have a half mile to think about it before circling back around to face it head on. So I spent the next 4 min thinking to myself...ugh, that hill, I remember that hill! Last year that hill almost killed me. (I was having so many issues with my heart rate going way to high and causing my chest to hurt that I almost didn't make it...problem solved with that by the way....no more unhealthy heart issues.)

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked up and surveyed my next challenge...this year. I was not going to let this hill kick my ass. I watched as runner after runner slowed down to a near walk as they scrabbled up the hill. Screw this I told myself and I started up. I will not slow down I told myself....High Knees High Knees. Breath Breath, get to the top of this thing....AGHHHHHH!
BAM...crushed it...kinda :)

However at the top, everyone was heading up over the top of the hill, through some grass and gravel and down the side of it...for some reason we were getting off the road. Different then last year, but heck...I guess I am a sheep. And apparently so is everyone else....we all go off track...but not like we are going to turn around now. We plowed through and to the finish line.

Although I didn't get a great PR and although I lost 2 min off my time over the summer....it was a hill run and I managed to slid into 2nd place. Actually it was a tie. We both came in 24:00, however my gun time was 24:07...she crossed the start line :07 before me. But whatever, I finished and I didn't die, I didn't give up and I didn't stop! WHOOHOO!!!

My next race is the Firefighters 5K next Sunday along Hollywood Beach, I am looking forward to it. hope I can get my time back down...I don't expect it to be where it was yet...but closer would be nice.

This was race number 16 of 2013 I will get to my goal of 24 for 2012 yet! :)