Race Report: Sioux Falls Parks and Rec 5k

Last year, I had such a blast doing all of the Sioux Falls Parks and Rec 5ks both in June and September/October. The only bummer about running and training going so well for the Twin Cities 10 Mile, was that racing a 5k didn't really fit into our training weekly. However, two weeks out from our goal race, we squeezed in the 5k to use as a race predictor for the 10 mile. I had hoped to be in the 8:00-8:15 range based on my 10 mile goal pace. My speedwork sessions in the 3k-5k range had been 7:50-8:20 throughout the past training cycle.

Toni and I went for a two mile warm up with 4x100 strides in mile 2. And my legs felt like GARBAGE. My calves were so tight from all the hills the day prior. Yikes. I honestly thought about not doing the race at all, but I hoped that my legs would eventually loosen up. I usually make sure I have at least a rest day or easy day in between long runs and speedwork, so I was really hoping I wasn't going to break myself before the goal race!

Right as the race was starting, I realized my watch had reset itself, so I quickly tried to find satellites. Shortly after we started I looked down and saw a 4:12 pace, so I'm sure it was a little wonky to start. Lolz. Toni flew by me and was in the lead for females, and I was sitting in 2nd. Another glance at my watch showed 7:37 pace, which may have been just a little too fast. Another female came up on me halfway through mile one and we ran together for a bit, and then I pulled ahead. Right at the one mile marker, she pulled ahead again.

Mile 1 8:10

I had assumed she was speeding up, until my watch confirmed that she was maintaining while I was quickly fading. Gulp. Mile 2 is always the worst for me, so I just tried not to let the gap between us fade too much and get to the turn around asap. Once I'm "halfway done" I can usually convince myself to pick up the pace and dig deeper. A biker was coming from the opposite direction at the turn around, so I slowed down quite a bit so we didn't collide, and suddenly 2nd place female was light years ahead of me. Crap. I failed to look at my watch at the turn around, so I wasn't sure what my first half split was, or what the distance was at the turn around. This race is always a short course, but it was a new route because the bike trail is closed, so I wasn't sure if it'd be around 3 or a full 3.1.

Mile 2 8:37

The final mile, I kept closing in on guys who I had assumed had gone out too fast and were struggling. Thanks for the motivation dudes! But when I'd come up to pass them, they weren't wearing bibs, and were just out for their runs. Hah. I appreciate them spurring my competitiveness regardless. Hah. I picked it up a little in the final mile, but my legs just didn't have any spring in them.  I knew I'd have to go to a super painful place to go any faster than what I was doing and I just didn't want to risk injury or something stupid for a little faster 5k (3 mile) time/pace. I barely even picked it up the last 30 seconds according to my garmin. oops.

Mile 3 8:11 (8:26 pace)

I finished the 2.97 in 24:59 for a pace of 8:24.

Race Report: Harrisburg 5k

Two weeks ago, I ran my first race of 2015, the Harrisburg 5k. I've ran the 10k a couple of times, and opted for the 5k this go around to see where my "speed" was at as I knew I didn't have any speed+endurance, making the 10k sound like hell.

I had plans to go out around 8:50 pace, in hopes that I could maybe sustain an 8:45 for the duration of the race. Most of the super fasties did the 10k, so I lined up toward the front, and then we were off! I tried to go out comfortably, but clearly I haven't raced in awhile, because somehow comfortable was significantly sub-8. Including some sub-7 moments. Uh... nope.

I finally settled in-ish but had my watch set on lap pace, so I had a hard time judging what pace I was actually running at since I had gone out so fast. I kept track of the ladies that were passing me as I was putting on the brakes, knowing it'd be good motivation for my competitive side once it was time to kick it in to gear! 

Mile 1 8:20

 

I was pretty tired and wasn't sure if I was physically tired, or if I mentally felt like I should be tired after running an 8:20 first mile. Turns out I was pretty tired, as the next mile was in 9:05. Around the half way mark, I knew I could be under 27 minutes, and thought I could maybe be close to 26:30 if I didn't fade too badly, so that became my new goal.

Mile 2 9:05 oops.

There was not a single whisp of a breeze at this point, and I would've paid handsomely for someone to fan me with a giant leaf as I ran by. I'm not familiar with the town the race was in, despite having run it before, and the route wove all around, so I had a hard time judging where we were in relation to the finish line. So I just kept running. As you do.

I picked it up every so slightly in the final mile, although I'm pretty sure I was giving it all I had at that point.

Mile 3 8:53

I kicked in the last .5 of the race, and caught up to some folks in the process, and then steps before the finish line, one of the gals I passed came WAILING through to pass me. Of course she was in my age group. :P

.1 7:19 pace

Final time 26:33

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my efforts and was excited to see I ran the race a minute faster than my last 5k in November. I've still been running minimally, with the focus being on yoga teacher training, so I'm excited to be able to commit myself to a program and see some more progress.

Race Result

Overall 35 / 109 (32.1%)

Ages 30 - 39  5 / 35 (14.3%)

Gender 12 / 72 (16.7%)

Race Report: Jingle Bell Run 5k

I had initially planned to race a 3 or 6 miler on Thanksgiving morning, but when it was forecasted for well below zero, and Friday was showing a heat wave, I decided to sleep in and race Friday instead. Great decision. Unfortunately that means I spent $45 on a 5k. I often race half marathons cheaper than that, uff da.

My first race as a 605 Running Club Member!

I had to head downtown really early as race day registration ended an hour and a half before the race actually started. Luckily people were gathering at 605 Running Co. pre-race, so I did some shopping downtown and then headed over there to wait. We snapped a picture in front of the store before we made our way to the 6:30pm start, and after talking to Greg, I decided I'd try to stick with him, because his goal race pace was similar to mine.



The race was an out and back to start along the street that would feature the Parade of Lights as soon as we were done running, so it was packed with "spectators." They weren't there for us, but it definitely felt like it while we were running. The first stretch was a gradual uphill, and I was pretty pleased that my pace was right around 8:40. I was hoping I could run around an 8:30ish for the 5k. I stuck with Greg until our first turn around, and when I thought I could speed up on the gradual downhill, my legs already felt tired. (sidenote: this 5k was the longest run I've done in awhile. Uh...ooops!)

While I felt like I was slowing down, my pace ended up being almost exactly the same. I probably went out too aggressively in the opening uphill mile and paid for it, but that's ok. Run and learn.

Mile 1 8:40

We got a nice boost of cheers each time we passed in front of the running store, and hopefully they snapped some pics of us flying. Once we started heading toward the falls, we lost all spectators but also got to run through the falls all lit up for the holidays.

Mile 2 8:38

Right around 2.3 miles my body was ready to be done. This also coincided nicely with the twisty turny windy bike path that was the most intense uphill of the race. Blah. In the past, this race has been considerably short, (2.8-2.9 miles) so I started doing a countdown to being done. I do this a lot in races because counting takes my mind off the pain, and I like to get to the finish line before I hit zero. Unfortunately they adjusted the race course, so it was actually on this year, so I got down to zero and still had .2 to run. GAH!

Mile 3 9:15

Hah, told you I faded in the third mile. I saw Greg in front of me as I was nearing the 5k so I was able to kick it in a bit for a strong finish.

.1 :48 (8:20 pace, 7:28 max pace)

I finished 3.1 in 27:15 for a pace of 8:49.




The good news is that I didn't have any knee or IT band issues after the race, so I think all of my yoga is helping to stretch and strengthen my issues, and it's no surprise that my endurance has suffered a bit with running taking the backseat to yoga. It was a blast and reminded me how much I love racing, and lining up for races with friends.

Race Report: Free Rebel 5k

I'm not used to late morning race starts, so I had my normal nervous dreams (don't ask me why I was nervous for this race, I get nervous for long runs and hard workouts, I'm bizarre) and couldn't sleep. I finally just woke up early to be sure my stomach would have time to chill out after I fed it. I've been having a lot of stomach issues lately, blergh. I finally texted Jenn to let her know I was leaving early and I'd see her there. 

I thought I was going to regret wearing long sleeves, so I threw armsleeves in my bag, and planned to ditch the long sleeve for them after our warm up together. And then I stepped outside and brrr. I texted Jenn to bring gloves. I was one of the first runners to get to the race and was super excited that I got to snag one of the free race shirts! For a free race (donations for the Humane Society encouraged--awesome!) I was shocked at how cute the shirt was! I also got a commemorative novelty bib, they had drawings for door prizes, and a free green beer ticket for the first 200 race finishers over 21. Yes I think I picked the correct 5k race this holiday.

Jenn finally got there so we headed out for our run. And almost froze. Oh my goodness. It was right around freezing, but with the wind (the out portion of the race route) the wind chill was 19. Uff! We ended up cutting our warmup short to just a mile. My cold is still sticking around with a vengeance so I was nervous that would effect my breathing on the run, especially coupled with the cold wind gusts.

We snapped this adorably green clad photo before the race. 

And this awkward gem of a pic. I was trying to look like the leprechaun on my race bib. I ended up looking like I was trying to pee/poo standing up. Sooper hawt.

And then after standing outside in the cold for an hour (awesome race strategy) the race was finally off!

My race goals I had set for myself were done last week when I had assumed I was going to be over my cold, so I was pretty confident I wouldn't be running a sub 8:30 pace, but I decided I'd only know if I tried. 

I tried to keep Jenn in my sights and also tried to stay with a pack of runners so I would have some wind block on the way out. My first glance at my garmin was a 7:54. Hah, oops. My pace slowed down throughout that mile, since I'm clearly not in sub 8 5k shape at the moment. The crowd of runners dispersed almost immediately so I was stuck with zero wind block, and zero people behind me (or so it felt). Luckily for me, I was finally able to let a ton of snot out behind me without fear of smoking fellow runners with my leprechaun hued boogers. Eeew.

After hitting the one mile in 8:30, I realized that my goal race time probably wasn't going to happen, but I started to feel a little better than I did in mile one and knew we were close to the turn around and would finally have the wind at our backs. At one point my pace for mile two was 8:48. Uff. I kept digging and tried to slowly pick off people. I hit the turn around in ~13:30 and had a totally renewed sense of running. I quickly passed a couple of people and picked up the pace. My second mile was an 8:40.

Shortly after the third mile started I felt like I was all by myself. No one behind me, and a few people not quite catchable in front of me. I started doing the math to see how much time I had left to run to determine when I could start kicking. I picked it up with about 6 minutes left in the race and really tried to haul. My third mile was an 8:24, my fastest of the race, and my final .1 was :41 for a pace of 6:49! Hey, there's still speed in these legs!

I started off around seventh place for females and passed two shortly before the one mile marker, and held on to fifth for the remainder of the race. I was hoping for top ten so I was pretty thrilled about this, and I think that helped keep me focused on running hard throughout the race.

AND for the first time in a couple of years of racing, I finally hit a race goal I set for myself! I was shooting for 25:29-26:21 and ran a 26:17. Whoop! Considering my mile repeats have been in the high 8:30s, I'm pretty pumped I ran an 8:29 pace for this. Slooooooooowly getting back to regular runner Jerbear!

Yayzies!