New PB and a prize!

So the (patent pending) altitude training must have worked cos I have a shiny new 5k pb of 23:23 as of yesterday. Woohoo!  This was good enough for 2nd lady overall so I won a €20 elverys voucher.  My first ever race winnings!  Might as well give up the day job right now! 
Obviously it was a small race but it's an important one to me as it's in the village both my sets of grandparents are from (yup, I'm properly smalltown and possibly inbred!) 
Added to that I had dropped out of the last race I'd done locally so I felt under scrutiny to finish. Oh and my family sponsor the ladies race.... NBD!  So no pressure then....

I prepared properly by drinking a couple of glasses of wine and a rum and coke the evening before. What do you mean that's not proper pre race nutrition??

I turned up at the start line about 40 minutes before the start which was stupid in such a small race, especially before a 5k where I have time to think about how much it's going to hurt. I chatted to some people I hadn't seen for twenty years or so to pass the time. It's amazing how people who used to seem way older than you are now miraculously almost the same age. How did that happen?

The race started on time just as the sun was coming out. Reason prevailed and I set off at a nice steady pace and let everyone stream ahead of me. Predictably most went off too fast.

The first 2k was okay but then this was mostly downhill. The next 3k sucked really badly but I fell into step with my cousins husband and we kept each other going until the final kilometer. At this point I wanted to puke and walk and all the usual 5k mind games but I could see the finish line so I pushed on ahead.

Crossing the finish line was followed immediately by having a little sit down on the curb. I was not feeling the love for running at this point! By the way I ran this race without a watch so I had no idea of my time at this stage. When my aunt came over and told me I was second lady home I was delighted! I chatted for a while to the 3rd lady and she indicated that her time was under 24 minutes so I knew I was on for a pb.  Also I didn't know there were prizes for 2nd and 3rd too! I was absolutely delighted with 23:23 and of course now I want to do another 5k ASAP to get a 22:xx. Possibly on a weeknight so I don't sabotage myself with booze.

Time to get serious this week about my diet and building my miles back up. My total was 25 miles this week which isn't bad for a comeback week but I want to be back up around 40 by the middle of the month with long runs well into the double digits.