JerBear Shares: Race Report: St. Patty's Day 5 Mile + 1 Mile

I woke up super early Saturday morning feeling very meh about racing. My knee had been bothering me, Toni was going to be out of town, and there was potential for some really gross weather to roll through town. Last minute, Toni ended up not going out of town, due to the really gross weather making its way across the state. YAY! I told her my plan was to head into town to get in a 3 mile warm up prior to the race. I'd decide to either skip the race altogether or just run it for fun, without worrying about a goal time, weather dependent.

We ran into Greg, co-owner of 605 Running Co. on our way out to run and he said that it was slick. Uff. Toni, Melissa and myself started out on the run, and it was a sheet of ice. We kept going in hopes that it would clear up, or get better, we attempted to run in the ice coated grass lining the trail. The most telling moments were when we would all catch a piece of extra slick ice at the exact same moment and shuffle our feet in unison until we had passed it. We turned around at .75 miles and I think our average pace was in the 11s. I told the gals I was out. I didn't want to risk hurting myself knowing that I couldn't race, and I'd be really mad at myself if I got hurt by my own accord, or if someone else accidentally took them down with me. They both agreed.

I picked up a coffee and high-tailed it back home.

Toni and I met up late morning to get in our 5 miles around town, determined to keep our mileage on track for the day. The roads were completely fine (as they were for the race as well, but we were set to race on a completely untreated bike path side note: yes I'm annoyed that the race organizers and director didn't bother to put down any salt along the path what so ever. A little bit would've gone a long way. We were told to "run at our own risk" via email at 4am). Rant over.

We had a beautiful little jog around town with some speedier than normal paces. And most excitingly, my knee felt fine. PHEW! Thanks to my massage therapist for my emergency 9:30pm massage on Thursday night! She's the best.

We drove into town, parked near the running store, and congregated in the store for a bit before our warm up for the one mile race. Ideally we could've timed our extra miles and warm up a little better, but I knew there were road closures that would make getting downtown difficult, so I wanted to be parked before all that happened.

Finally it was time to take off on our warm up mile, and we left the store with all the super fast runners from 605. As in, the team of runners that took first place as a male/female team in Chicago the following weekend for a really big 8k! The race route/parade route was already closed, so we ran along it with the parade goers cheering us on. That is officially the coolest I will ever feel in my life. :P

We got in another mile of warm up with 10-15 minutes before the race, to get our muscles warmed up. Everyone thought we were crazy for running in shorts and tanks, but whatever. We lined up near-ish the front, but as it was gun time, I'm a little annoyed we didn't line up closer. The gun was off and so were we! Some of us at a sub 6 pace. Oops. If you'll recall, my goal was to run really damn close to 7 minutes, if not under, so sub 6 may have been a bit ambitious.

I caught up to Toni pretty early on and somehow shouted to her to "get her ass going" and she took off like a rocket. Two of my running buddies who are pretty close in race times to me were right with me, and we took turns leap frogging down Philips Ave.

I tried to figure out how to lap my Garmin at every quarter of a mile before the race, and I couldn't do it, but my running log is amazing and did it for me. Wahoo!

First .25 1:30, 6:04 pace. Barf.

I didn't check my watch until about a third of the way through the mile, which was great. Hey, we're almost done already! I feel great! And then I remember shortly thereafter feeling pretty darn tired. HAh. I had warned myself prior to the race to not panic or freak out when it started to feel really hard about halfway through the race. A) you're hauling mail (that's what Kyle likes to say when I'm racing well) and B) the first part of the race is slightly downhill, so it feels SUPER HARD once it flattens out.

Second .25 1:47 7:09 pace.

The third quarter is always where I'd struggle in middle school when I raced the mile, I had hoped that I'd be able to stay strong and consistent with my pace, but I clearly did not. I lost sight of most of my running friends during this quarter as they pulled away and my legs mysteriously gained 900 lbs each.

Third .25 1:53 7:33 pace. gulp.

With the final stretch coming up I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the finish line was. I knew we had started a block closer than the previous year I did it, but since we were entering the falls, I couldn't envision where the finish line would be, and I couldn't see it. OMG I'm READY TO BE DONE. Luckily with about that quarter mile. to go I finally spotted the finish line and kicked it in to high gear. I flew by one of my running buddies and set my sights on another, meanwhile the clock was slowing making it's way to 7:00.

Fourth .25 1:45 7:04 pace. uff da. Max pace 5:18.

My Garmin clocked me at 6:56 for the full mile, but the official time had me at 7:02. I'm partially annoyed with that big of a swing, but I'm just choosing to take on the 6:56 as my official time. :) So that's a post HS one mile PR!!! Wahoo!!