Good morning and happy Wednesday!! I hope you are all having a great week. I don’t know about you, but shorter work weeks are nice, but you still have to cram the same amount of work into less days, so it can get chaotic!! Anyways…today I another race recap for you. A couple of weeks back I was at my local running store and they told me about a great 5k that happened to be in my town for a young man who passed away from myocarditis. All the net proceeds would go directly to the American Heart Association and Myocarditis Foundation, specifically for research to reduce death caused by Myocarditis. I’m always in to support a great cause and when it’s mixed with running, it was a no brainer. I immediately texted my BFF and asked her if she wanted to run it with me since she has now been consistently running for almost a year. She recently did her first 5k and she said she was in. We registered for the race and it happened this past Saturday.
I arrived around 8:30 a.m., parked and walked a few mins down to where the registration was located, signed in and found out they were not giving out bib numbers or tracking devices. I figured since this was a charity race, they were trying to save money as much as they could. They told me that after I crossed the finish line, I was going to get a ticket that I would bring back to the registration desk and that is how they would record my time. I thought it was an interesting way to keep track of so many runners, but I guess there is a first time for everything right?
I walked back to the Middle School to drop my bag off and that is when Erica and one of her teacher friends, Jill arrived. I walked them over to the registration area, they got their bags and we walked back to the Middle School again for them to drop off their stuff. I told them I would meet them at the registration area after I got in a short warm up. My super speedy friend Haileyposted a week ago about how she warms up before a race. I never warm up before a race, so I took some of her advice. I did a short run to warm my legs up, did some leg swings, high knees and some dynamic stretches. I also asked another runner to take a quick before race picture. I’m on the left, Erica is in the middle and her friend Jill on the right.
It was soon time to line up for the race and Erica, Jill and I had a plan to meet up post race at the Naked Juice truck. We parted ways and I seeded myself towards the middle of the pack and before I knew it, we were off. There was no horn, I just saw everyone in front of me starting to run so I followed suit.
The course was an out and back. I didn’t really have a goal for this race, I just wanted to go out there and have fun and run at a comfortable pace. This quickly turned into the “How not to run a smart 5k” so please, learn from my mistakes so you don’t make the same ones, okay? The first 1/2 mile was downhill, which felt fun and free at the beginning, not so much at the end. I heard the first beep of my Garmin and looked down and saw 6:48 and immediately had two rapid fire thoughts, “HOLY SHIT, I NEED TO SLOW DOWN” and “WOW, THAT IS THE FASTEST MILE I HAVE EVER RUN!” I felt like I was pushing it but not totally out of control but I knew I went out WAY too fast and pulled back. We hit the first water stop and I quickly grabbed a cup of water from Sue, one of the volunteers who is actually the receptionist at my PT office, so we said hello and I was off again.
Since it was an out and back course, I could see those in the front of the pack who had already reached the halfway point and were heading back and suddenly Mike, my PT flew by me looking strong. While I have never run an out and back race, I kind of like it because I felt more motivated when I saw the front-runners speeding by me. I hit the half way point, we had to go around a guy and a cone and we were on our way back. I settled into a comfortable pace and heard the second beep of my Garmin but I missed the time. I came back up to the water station again, took another quick drink of water and told myself I had less than a mile left. I was looking for Erica and Jill and suddenly heard my name being yelled and it was them waving and smiling. I told them they were doing great and I continued on my way.
At this point, my legs were feeling fatigued and it was hot and humid, but I took a right turn and put my head down as there was a long slight incline in front of me. I felt like I slowed down a bit but I kept telling myself to not worry about pace but focus on an equal effort. I crested the hill and took another right turn and hit the “BIG” hill. It was a half mile of hell. I felt my legs slowing down and my breathing was really labored. I stopped once to walk and catch my breath, I allowed myself 10 seconds and started back up, feet shuffling as I was REALLY tired at this point. I made it about half way up and had to stop again to catch my breath. I walked another 10 seconds and told myself I had to finish without walking again. I was soaking wet with sweat and my sun glasses were fogging up so I flipped them up and let them rest of my head and told myself I was almost done and to push through.
Up ahead I saw a group of people standing and I knew I had to take another right hand turn but didn’t know how much further I had to go, apparently analyzing the distance on my Garmin wasn’t a thought in my head. I slowed down trying to muster up the energy to continue on and once I turned that corner the finish line was right there. I saw the clock hit 24:00 and I booked it.
I crossed the line, stopped my Garmin and finished in 24:02, averaging a 7:47 pace—and good for a PR! While I was really happy that I PR’d, I was totally pissed at myself for starting off so fast, which lead me to crash and burn towards the end (check out those splits below, I’m a little embarrassed I made that mistake!), and then for having to stop and walk twice because if I would have played this race smarter, I would have run a sub 24, but I guess that will be my goal for the next race! A PR still feels pretty freaking awesome! I am still shocked that I have had a handful of runs lately in the 7′s, something I never dreamed I was capable of.
I got my ticket, brought it inside to the registration desk and came back out to grab a bottle of water. They had a massage therapist on site who was doing massages so I had her work on my right IT band while I waited for Erica and Jill to finish. At the 30 minute mark, I walked over towards the finish line and was able to capture Erica right as she was running through the finish line.
I LOVE this picture of her. This was her second 5k and while she didn’t PR, I am SO FREAKING proud of her. She went from not being able to run one lap around the track to running a 5k without stopping. I am really glad I got to do this race with her and capture this moment.
After they dropped off their tickets to the registration desk, they grabbed some post race food and I grabbed another water and started walking back to the middle school so we could head home. All in all, sweating and supporting a good cause at the same time was a great way to kick off the holiday weekend!
Post race we got the official results: 2nd in my age group! 31st out of 238 total runners. The girl who placed first in my age group finished 30 seconds before me, grrrr!
31 24:04 Sara Zwicker 2/38 F19-39
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Question of the day
Anyone else have a hard time going out at a conservative pace during races? If not, give me your tips on how to get better at this!
What’s your favorite race distance?
