Christmas was wonderful, a day of eating and drinking, and the joy that Boxing day would be a lie in! The Witham Boxing Day 5 didn't start until 11am, so we didn't need to leave the in-laws until 9:50, which meant an 8:30 alarm clock. Bliss after having awoken at 5 to cook the turkey before church and letting it rest in the car whilst I acoltyed (is that a word?). But for some reason there were vibrations on the floor, and VERY LOUD MUSIC, like a rave. WHY??? My one lie in of the year! My brother-in-law had not un-set his work alarm, so it was 7am wake up instead, and I couldn't get back to sleep for needing the toilet, as much as I tried.
I went downstairs for porridge (not the usual rich breakfast of the Christmas period) and then the left overs were divided between us, so we could all enjoy the fruits of my day's cooking. We set off on our way to Witham, and I received some good luck texts on the way. I'm not sure luck was needed, as having never run a 5 mile race, this would be a guaranteed PB. Race predictors suggested 35 min dead on which I must say I felt was rather closer to my 5k pace (20:53) than 10k pace (44:06) so wasn't sure about that especially with no short distance specific training. I decided to go for it anyway and started not too far from the start line but got caught behind people who were going at a 9mm fairly quickly.
I managed to catch up time and eventually finished the first mile on 7:01- it felt neither too fast nor too slow but I wasn't sure quite where to push. I figured I would just aim for even pacing until about 3.5 miles and used a chap in blue to keep in my sights. At about halfway I could see a girl I knew, Kate, she has very recently started running and already managed a 45 min 10k on the day I got that 44min time. I didn't think I would catch her as she was at least 50m ahead but thought I would try anyway. There was also another lady in red between me and her so this could give me a chance of upping my placing.
I passed the lady in red at around 3.5 miles and started increasing my cadence to see if I could catch Kate, which I did- she was fading but I knew she had it in her to keep pushing so I offered her some encouragement and ran in step with her- luckily the course started going downhill so our mile pace was about 6:30.
We were running in step with each other and I told her when it was only 800m to go. She managed to overtake a chap in front and an oncoming car meant I didn't/couldnt go with her. Plus I know I have no kick so didn't think it worth trying (what a defeatist attitude!?!).
We had been told not to bring the garmin across our chest as we crossed the finish so I didn't know my exact time. Later publishing of the results showed 34:09 and 7th lady. Quite pleased with that- my garmin also recorded a 5k pb (by 1 second) of 20:52 and has given me some quite juicy new race predictions!!
The lady in red came up to me at the finish and congratulated me on my racing and asked if I was a marathon runner, and I said I was. And that I was training for London. She asked me my time and what I was aiming for, and then told me that she ran 3:21 last year, so if I race like that I'm in great shape for the marathon goal I've set.
On the down side, I've started to experience Reynauds syndrome in the last few months and during the race, my fingers really did go numb, even with gloves. I had arranged for David to have the heaters on in the car for me to put some kit on top when I finished and as my fingers regained feeling from warming up it hurt so much it felt like someone was stabbing my fingers with daggers!!! It hurt so much I actually started crying 
.
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I asked on a forum if anyone had any experience with this, and I was directed to this fab blog post by @intrepidsarah Raynauds and Running
I've found since the race that doubling up on the gloves and keeping wrapped up completely seems to help, so I won't be starting another winter race in shorts an a tee-shirt any time soon!
Talking of tee-shirts, look at the one I got for the race:
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