2015 Twilight 12k race recap

The Twilight 12k is probably my favorite race of the year, and this year I was extra excited because it was a chance to PR after all the training I've been doing lately. 

Steve's been in-between work calls so Wednesday we went camping (I'll post about that later on this week) and of course, Thursday morning he got a work call so we had to pack up quick and head to Anchorage for him to take the call and run some errands for the new job. It's a great call and Steve is really happy about the job he'll be doing, so I'm happy of course too. But Steve had also just sold his commuter vehicle and we were planning on checking out another over the weekend, so we were down to one vehicle right when we needed to be in a lot of places in a short amount of time. 

Steve had to show up at his new call Friday morning, so we were up at 4:45am to get packed for our long day in Anchorage, then loaded both sleepy eyed kids up in the pjs and were on the road by 5:45. After we dropped him off around 6:45am, we went straight to Starbucks (of course) then ran some errands in the morning and hung out with my mom at her house for the rest of the day until it was time to pick Steve up at 5:30pm and head straight downtown for the race. I'm so thankful he didn't mind hanging out after his first day on a new job while I ran, it was so nice to have him and the kids there to cheer me on at the end.

picked up my tshirt and bib Thursday afternoon

at the starting line in front of Skinny Raven about half an hour before the race started

Me and Sarah before the race, just like two years ago

There are two events at this race, the 6k and the 12k. I was doing the 12k, which was supposed to start at 7:05 (five minutes after the 6k). Anyone who's been to a big race knows that the port-a-potty lines can be crazy right before the race starts. So I warmed up on the park strip one block over and used the port-a-potty there about 5 minutes before the race was supposed to start. I was starting to feel a little nervous about being back in time so I hurried over to the start line, getting there right at 7:05. I had my headphones in but could hear the announcer and saw other people with the blue bibs to signify the 12k, so when he said go about 20 seconds after I arrived, I went.

Except it was actually the start of the 6k, things were just running a little late. The blue bib people had only been in the back, waiting for the red bib 6k people to go so that they could move up to start. And it took me half a mile to notice. At which point I had to frantically turn around and run back towards the start. It was mortifying, like a run of shame, going back against the crowd like that. Such a stupid mistake. I was feeling a whole lot of things at during those moments, including the urge to just run to my truck crying. Even though I'm not ever going to be a super-fast runner I take races seriously as a chance to challenge myself and do the best that I can, so adding an extra mile to the race and messing up my chip time was extremely frustrating for me.

Luckily I made it back just in time to watch all the fastest runners going by and get into the pack that was running at my pace. And somehow my chip results are accurate, at least according to what my running app said. I just added about a mile onto my race at race pace in addition to the mile warmup I had already done, so ended up running 9.5 instead of the races 7.45. I guess it ended up being fine, because I beat my goal time by nearly two minutes and felt great the entire race, other than being more tired than I expected during the last mile, which was probably due to the crazy sprint at the beginning to get back to the start.

about to start the last couple of hills that lead to the finish.
don't let my smile fool you, I was feeling rough at this point, just
didn't want to be grimacing for the picture, haha.

done! yahoo!
I think you can tell from my face how happy I was to be crossing the finish.

Despite my completely idiotic mistake, it was a great race and I'm really happy with my results, and with how I felt during the race. I shaved off 8.5 minutes from my 2013 time, so that was great (read my 2013 race recap, here). Can't wait to add some more mileage over the next couple of weeks in preparation for the Her Tern Half Marathon (my first) in mid-July.