Race Report: Mattapoisett 5-Mile Road Race

On Friday morning I drove the hour plus down to Mattapoisett for a 5-mile road race. I came out of this race with an "eh" feeling. I liked and disliked the race itself. I liked and disliked my performance. Here's how it broke down.

Results:
Official Time - 37:40 (7:32 min./mi.)
9th in division of 85 females aged 19-29
146th overall of 973 total entrants

Reasons I Didn't Like the Race:

1. There were no signs for parking like the website said there would be. It's such a local race that I can see why there aren't, but put them up if you say you are going to, please.
2. The National Anthem was played 10 minutes before race start. I'm sorry, but I had to run through this and I couldn't stop to listen. Ten minutes before equals a lot of runners still warming up. Please wait until just a few minutes before race start next time.
3. Because many of us were still running during the National Anthem, one very rude woman had to say, "Stop walking/running the National Anthem is on." Which then forced me to use my filter and not say, "Hey fatty, you better walk whether they are playing the National Anthem or not." I know that's not yogic, which is why I acknowledged I was not being proper and didn't say it.
4. The clocks at each mile were way off. The first clock I hit said 7:00 and although I wanted that to be true it definitely was not.
5. Terrible after party. There was some good fruit to eat which was nice because it was humid, but the one activity afterwards (unless I didn't hang around long enough) was the awards. Let's party for a bit people!
6. I had no idea where the start line was and thus didn't know when to start my watch.
7. About 80% of people who lined up ahead of me were running 2 minutes per mile slower than me. It's always nice to have pace signs so people have some kind of general idea where they should be.
   

Reasons I Did Like the Race:

1. Mattapoisett is beautiful! The course was just incredible. There were a couple rolling hills, but nothing very difficult. There were trees, shade, lots of crowd support, people were actually cheering and holding their hoses out as sprinklers.
2. A really nice lady who also came alone sat by me afterward and we chatted for awhile. It's always nice when someone does that.
3. There were a lot of fast people there, which I find really inspirational.
4. Even though the race was big, the crowd spread out after the first mile-ish and then it was just nice and easy.
5. A girl actually said good job to me as I passed her. I later saw her and found out she is only 15. I'm not sure what that means or how I feel about it.

Reasons I Did Not Like My Performance:

1. I did not PR as was my goal.
2. I had to stop for 10-ish seconds because of a terrible side stitch that I was unfortunately unable to run through. What the heck causes those things anyway? I hardly ever get them.
3. At the end of the race I was left wondering if I really gave it all I had. I don't like that lingering thought. I prefer to know I did give it all I had.

Reasons I Did Like My Performance:

1. I felt strong throughout the race.
2. I don't believe that anyone I passed came back to pass me.
3. I stayed very focused throughout the race mentally encouraging myself along the way.
4. It just felt good to race again.

So that's a breakdown of the race. I would recommend it to someone looking for a scenic 5-mile race that is sort of laid back. I would not recommend it if you are looking for something perfectly organized (or for a good t-shirt, these ones were boring).

I'll get back on track with weekly training updates this week probably. The boyfriend and I are super busy putting some finishing touches on the house so we can just get it to good-enough-to-move-in status, which has to happen by July 31st. Ah! So If I'm not writing, then I'm either running, working, teaching yoga, stripping paint, sanding, priming, painting or at Lowe's.