The Buckeye Striders have started a new race tradition – entering the New Albany Independence Day 5K. It’s one of the few local 5Ks with a walking division.

Last year was our first year doing this race as a group and every one of us who entered placed in our age group. I not only won my age group, I set a personal record by more than 2 min.

This morning was overcast and chilly and some of us debated keeping our jackets on. None of us did.

This was my first race since starting the Whole30 plan 21 days ago, and I was a little worried about whether the switch from burning carbs to burning fat for energy is really working yet.

I didn’t have a race plan — basically go as fast as I can for as long as I can, and see what happens. The race is mostly on streets, but when the crowd thins out, it moves to bike trails.

I started strong at about a 12:20 mile. There were plenty of little kids to dodge (so cute). At one point I realized I wasn’t breathing hard, and looked to see I had slowed down to a 13+ pace, so tried to go faster. The best I could do was about 12:35.

At another point I could see my friend Cheryl  out of the corner of my eye. We are in the same age group, and I really wanted to beat her. I looked at my watch, saw that I had slowed to 12:45, so I tried to pick up the pace and got back down to 12:35. It was enough to stay ahead of her the rest of the race.

I finished in 38:28, which is about a minute slower than I did the same race last year. (Darn.) I took fifth woman, sixth overall, first in my age group and first master woman!

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