U CAN FINISH Race Recap

G and I ran Track Shack's U CAN FINISH 5 Miler and 2 Miler Distance Dare this morning. It was actually pretty chilly (for us Floridians) when we got to UCF this morning around 7am. As I mentioned in my previous post, G and I signed up for the Track Shack Running Series and this was the 3rd event in the series. We missed the 2nd event when we were in Philly. This was their first Distance Dare event of the series as well. Pretty much it just means there are two races, right after each other and you run both of them. The only downside to the Distance Dare is depending what time you end the first race, in this case the 5 miler, you have to wait to start the 2nd race, the 2 miler. The 2 Miler didn't start until 8:45, so I didn't have to wait THAT much time in between races but it was enough for my muscles to start tightening up. Also the 2 Miler was more of a "fun run" with a TON of kids and a handful of strollers. I'm all for kids running, in fact I can't wait for EM to eventually be able to join us, I love seeing families running together, it was just very congested! My complaints with the 2 Miler were 1) they didn't have a true chip start time, just clock time (meaning everyone's time started at the same time 2) they used the last 2 miles of the 5 miler course, which was fine except right at this point of the course it got pretty narrow in a few areas and during the 5 miler the runners were already spaced so it wasn't too congested but during the 2 Miler it was still the beginning and during these narrow parts, it was seriously like walking SLOW, which did not help my tightening muscles or my time. I wanted to get at least 12:00 pace, but once it got so congested in the 1st mile I just said screw it and took my time with the other mile. Now for the 5 Miler, I loved it! It as SO nice outside, like I mentioned above, it was a little chilly when we started but as soon as I got going it felt nice and it did get warm and humid once the sun fully came up but it wasn't bad at all! After coming from a Disney race last weekend, not seeing any entertainment or people cheering you on until mile 2.5 was kind of disheartening! I feel like Track Shack races usually have more than they did for this race, maybe I just still had Disney too fresh in my mind, but seriously don't remember seeing a single person other than runners for the first 2.5 miles. Once you hit 2.5 miles though, the entertainment/people cheering you on really picked up and it was good. I love this course because it goes through UCF and I LOVE UCF and getting to see the campus again. Reminds me of my college days... ahh, the good times! I ran 3/1 intervals for both races (although it was hard to "run" for some of the 2 Miler due to the congestion of people) and I really liked running those intervals. I listed to the Cult Pop station on the iHeartRado app again too. Looks like this is going to be my running routine this season! Since this was a Distance Dare event, they did give out medals to the finishers of the Distance Dare. I'm a little disappointed that they don't have the race name on the medal, only the lanyard part :( I really hope it's not the same medal with a different lanyard for the other Distance Dare event at the end of the Running Series in the Spring. G and I didn't take any pics together for this race and only a few total, but here they are and following is our race stats and a guest post from G himself on his thoughts on the race.

Finisher's Medal for the Distance Dare

Love that I get to keep the same number for the whole series!

The finish line! (not us posing obviously)

My Stats:

5 Miler

Official Chip Time: 56:08 (overall pace of 11:14)

Place: 911 of 1303 Finishers

Place:442 of the 732 Women Finishers

Place: 71 of 104 in my Women’s Age Division (25-29)

My RunKeeper stats (which accounts for the zigzagging, run off to the bathroom, etc.):

5.08 miles in 57:33 (overall pace of 11:20) - Also didn't stop it for a solid minute after the finish whoops

Fastest Mile: #1 at 10:51

Slowest Mile: #4 at 11:30

2 Miler

Official Chip Time: 24:41 (overall pace of 12:20)

Place: 576 of 910 Finishers

Place:304 of the 545 Women Finishers

Place: 45 of 69 in my Women’s Age Division (25-29)

My RunKeeper stats:

2.04 miles in 24:04 (overall pace of 11:48)

Fastest Mile: #2 at 12:04

Slowest Mile: #1 at 11:32

Distance Dare (they had limited stats, just added together the two times and showed placement for gender)

Official Chip Time: 1:20:49 

Place: 187 of the 196 Women Finishers

G’s stats:

5 Miler

Official Chip Time: 58:23 (overall pace of 11:40)

Place: 986 of 1303 finishers

Place: 496 of the 571 Men Finishers

Place: 63 of the 69 in his Men’s Age Division (30-34)

His RunKeeper stats:

5.23 miles in 58:56 (overall pace of 11:17)

Fastest Mile: #3 at 10:56

Slowest Mile: #5 at 11:48

2 Miler

Official Chip Time: 23:54 (overall pace of 11:57)

Place: 538 of 910 finishers

Place: 264 of the 365 Men Finishers

Place: 31 of the 47 in his Men’s Age Division (30-34)

His RunKeeper stats:

2.09 miles in 23:22 (overall pace of 11:12)

Fastest Mile: #2 at 11:14

Slowest Mile: #1 at 11:18

Distance Dare 

Official Chip Time: 1:20:49 

Place: 176 of the 298 Women Finishers

Guest Post from G: 

Today was an absolutely beautiful day for a run and I love running through UCF.  The first mile was around the football stadium which is always fun to be around and makes me happy about the only thing related to fall that I love, football!  Anyhow, I felt pretty good and I was working on trying to get my pacing right so that I had even, or preferably, negative splits and all in all I'm happy with them.  My 4th mile was so slow because I pushed it a lot during the 3rd mile and should have dialed it back to get the right split.  Mile 5, well that sucked.  I had to stop running at two points to throw up, but then I was able to push along to make sure that I got the under 12 mile minute in there.

The 2 mile run I wasn't so sure about but I figured I'd try to do it as well as I could and I was pretty happy with that time, beating Denise after she had beaten me in the 5 mile race.  Once we got through the zoo of people, many of whom had never run before and had no idea what proper running etiquette was (seriously don't stop running right in front of someone, make sure you get to the side and make sure you make a sign if you are going to start walking), I was able to have a pretty nice run and a nice negative split!

**I may update this post in a day or so and add some pictures from the professional photographer depending how they come out.**