The sun was out and meant business. It was under 80 at the start, but probably not far. At least 70% humidity I'd guess. Fortunately, there was a semi decent amount of shade on the course. For the first time ever, I lined up at the very front of the pack. It was really exciting. High school track star SHOT OFF at the sound of the horn of course. There were about ten of us that ran together at first. I had planned to go out quick, but not 7:10 pace quick. So I backed off a bit, felt pretty strong through the first mile. Then the hills came. They weren't awful in reality, but two of them were enough to make me feel like dying. I focused on my "little steps" mantra for hills and tried to keep my feet under my body. On the second hill a chic in red shorts passed me. At this point, I was still the third girl. Now, fourth. I knew I'd already passed the 2 mile marker, so I was doing my best positive talk in my head. But then my negative side got the best of me and I couldn't NOT focus on all the times in training I'd pushed too early and burned out before the last kick. I love kicking at the end of a race. I wanted to be able to do that at this race too. I think I hung back a bit.
Then another female passed me. Fifth. Shoot. We had a great big downhill at this point and I knew the big long uphill to the finish was around the corner. I say, long, it was maybe a tenth or two tenths of a mile. But at the end of my first hard race, I was angry about it. I remember reading about how elites *recover* on downhills and tried to adjust my form there, and picked up quite a bit of speed before attempting catapult myself up the hill. I looked at my watch for the first time since two miles and realized, holy crap, I think I actually might beat my goal. I started pushing. Since I actually started this race at the line at the horn, I was able to watch the official race clock and that was fun. I did NOT watch it click past 00:24:00.
My official time was 23:49. Ben's was 22:52. Neither of us have run a 5k in over a year. It was REALLY fun. We stuck around for the awards ceremony. It was clear three of the other females that finished before me were not in my age group, but I was pretty sure one chic was. Neena told us the awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in age groups were decorative plates that had been painted by children with autism from the local schools. I was SO excited about that. When they posted the results, I was second in my age group (20-29). First is my age group was 23:22. I'm pretty sure it was the chic in the red shorts. Shoot. HA. The guy jumped on the mic and announced that first in age group would receive the awards. I was truly SO bummed about not getting a plate. BUT then they announced that 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall male/female received medals. So I was sort of defaulted to 1st in my age group because 23:22 was 2nd female overall! My plate is painted with the words "Race for Autism" and has the puzzle piece logo painted in the middle. I adore it.
Ben picked an orange one with a yellow helicopter. I was 22nd overall out of probably about 150 runners. (222 were registered, but a lot of folks walked). 
Neena finished REALLY well too for her second race ever, on fairly short training while working full time, being in grad school, and being my bridesmaid ;) She broke a ten minute mile pace, even if she did yell some choice words at the last hill! Her husband Aaron finished his first race in kick a%$ time too!
Congrats! Great race report.
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