Chip Time: 34:40

7/30/08 Posted in Sherri Powers  |  2 Comments

That’s right, I figured out how to use my chip. But the real exciting news is that I improved my race time by 6 minutes and 5 seconds since my last 5K a few weeks ago. This time I ran Ele’s Race at the Jackson National Life Headquaters.

A record 1,188 runners and walkers finished the race on Sunday making it not just a success for me but a success for the Ele’s Place. They also raised $113,000 for their cause.

Waking up in the morning, although I was a little nervous, this time I knew that there would be no confusion over littering on the side of the road or what a chip was. I had also set a goal to improve my time by 5 minutes, and was anxious to see if I could meet it.

As I got to the event I could see that it was going to be a big one, the place was packed. I was lucky to find Joanne, who I’ve been training with through Playmakers, in the mob of people that were surrounding the registration table.

Wandering around the event before the race started you could almost forget that you were there to run 3.1 miles. It was more like a carnival, with kids games and even a band. Soon enough though I snapped back to reality when they started annoucing where to line up since the race would be started in the next 10 minutes.

The race started off on a good note, literally as a band to the left of us amped everyone up. And we were off, well sort of.  It took me a minute to acutally be able to run, as you can imagine might be the case with over a 1,000 people lined up at a starting line.

But after a minute of walking in a mob of people, I was off. The first portion of the race went great. There was a band on the side of the road keeping everyone going and I made it to the first mile marker aid station with no problem. I drank a few swiggs of water while walking and I was back off and running.

At the turn around point on the far end of SandHill off Okemos Road I got another burst of energy while taking a few sips of water knowing that I was half way done. Now all I had to do was run back. Easy enough right? Except for the cramp that I suddenly developed at the aid station.  

I could either run, which made it hurt worse or speed walk it off. So I walked for a good minute or so before I was off again. As I passed another drink station I took only a sip of the water not wanting to put more liquid in my stomache than I had to.

But before I new it, the cramp had disappeared and I was rounding the corner to Okemos Road. Then I ran back passed the band and back into the parking lot. It was easy from here. I could hear the people cheering at the finish line from the entrance of the parking lot.

As I got closer they got louder. I’d like to think it was because they saw me coming but I could probably just hear them better the closer I got to the finish line. And there it was, I noticed that the clock had yet to reach 35:00, so my goal of improving my time by five minutes was in sight. And then it was over. With a finishing time of 34:40.

I was pumped up at that point though, and probably could have ran further than that. I was happy to see that I had improved by six minutes, cramp and all. As Joanne brought up, just think how I could have done without a cramp in my side.

Overall, cramp or no cramp I couldn’t be happier with that kind of improvement. I’m already looking forward to the next race, after some more training, so I can improve even more.