Race Report: Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile

Leading up to Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile I had every intention of running it as a tempo run. Originally this spring season, I had both the Skedaddle half and Fargo half slated as my A goal races. With a rocky, rough winter, I have shifted my focus to Skedaddle as workout and Fargo half as my goal race to optimize some training. Since Chilly Cheeks was originally planned as a tune up/race predictor for Skedaddle, it didn't make sense to race it.

Fast forward to race week, and I was reminded that I won my AG the previous year. Ugh. Well now I want to race! Toeing the line of the race, I still had no clue what I was going to do and figured my body would tell me in the first mile or so. My goal pace was literally somewhere between 8:15-8:50 pace. Hahah.

Melissa and I did a really easy 3.5 mile warm up, and I was surprised at how labored my breathing was. There was heavy, low-hanging fog and the humidity was stifling. Then we did strides. And suddenly my legs felt gooooooood.



We started off the race and the strides transferred over to the race start. I looked down and my GPS said I was running a 6:58. Whoa Nelly!! I eased off and kept a couple of my running buddies in sight, somewhere in that first mile (lolz) I realized that I had gone out way too fast and should've gone out at the slower range of my goal pace (as planned) and either stuck there or gradually sped up if I felt good. Instead I suspected I was in for the opposite progression.



Mile 1 8:34 pace

It was really hard to tell who was running the 5 mile and who was running the 10 mile since we all started together due to a new race route because of all the extreme flooding along the river. I had hoped that my competitive nature would kick in for at least a couple of miles of the race to pull me along, but every time someone passed me, I told myself it was a 10 miler, and let them go.



Mile 2 8:45 pace

At mile 2 I shut down the harder effort and just ran. I got to see a lot of running buddies at the turn around which gave me some extra pep in my step, and then I made it a point to cheer on all the incoming runners after I hit the turn around. Thank goodness that gave me something else to think about!

 



Mile 3 8:56 pace

The last two miles I was just ready to be done. I wasn't racing, I wasn't even hitting my tempo paces, and I just didn't feel like being out there. I may have gotten in my head a bit at this point. For me, it's really hard to do a race and not race and I need to remember that when I sign up for things. I either need to volunteer my time to still experience the race, or actually listen to my pacing plan at the start and not crash and burn. The humidity didn't help, but I was just 100% defeated.



Mile 4 9:07



In the final mile, the lovely Deb caught up to me from the 10 mile and was looking strong and fierce. She started giving me encouragement because I think she could tell that I was d-o-n-e. She's literally the best human. I hope you have a running friend like Deb, truly. She gave me a last little pep in my step to at least finish the race with a slightly harder effort. I didn't have much left to give but just focusing on stronger form for me usually results in a quicker turnover and a quicker pace. I told myself I would kick in to a "sprint" finish with a half mile to go but I couldn't even convince myself of that.

Mile 5 8:54

 
The amazing race director Karen did give me a shout out as I was coming up the finishing stretch which was fun, and made that .1 extra of the course tolerable. :P jk Karen.

.1 :51 seconds, 8:33 pace

I did 5.1 miles in 45:09 for a pace of 8:51, and an almost perfect positive split.

My running buddy Melissa met me at the finish line since she had finished a decade before me, and wanted to know how it went, but I made myself take a little walk break out to catch my breath and leave my crappy attitude behind me. When I caught back up to her, she had done AMAZING. I gave her a pacing plan, and unlike me, she followed it to a T, kicked butt and was 2nd female. 

We did our cool down run together after before awards and chili consumption. Despite a crummy performance, I always love Chilly Cheeks and will definitely be back again next year. Hopefully I'll do a better job of listening to my coach. Haha.

Race Report: Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile

Leading up to this race, my knee was still not 100%. I took off last Friday through Wednesday to allow it to heal, icing daily, taking epsom baths, and strength training Monday and Thursday. I had planned to do short easy mileage Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, as well as a short warm up on Saturday pre-race. I told myself that if my knee hurt at all during the week, that I'd scrap the race completely. The half marathons this spring are the goal, not a little 5 mile. I knew my money for the race would to a good cause regardless of if I raced. Wednesday miles were good, Thursday miles were good (with the exception of about 90 seconds of slight discomfort toward the end) Friday miles were good. We're getting closer!

Saturday morning I woke up got ready and swung by Toni's place to pick her up. We had planned to do 3 miles pre-race, but after encountering a really long slow port-a-potty line (guess who's stomach was super angry all morning per usual) we had time for 2.5 miles. We did a nice easy out and back and encountered the ten mile racers heading out. We had a couple of strides in there. I was elated at how well the knee hurt, but felt like my legs were lacking the usual pep that I like on race day. One volunteer on the race course asked if we were sisters (yes, even our warm up gear was identical) and when we said no she was shocked because she said even our running form was identical. Yeah, we've heard that too. Ha.

We did some leg swings and drills post-run to keep the body warm and loose, and again got called out on our twin-ness when Greg approached us to tell us we looked like a legit team doing our drills in perfect sychronation. Which wasn't planned. The runners were congregating at the line, and since the 5 mile was starting with the 5k, I didn't want to be a jerk and be right at the start line, but I also wanted to be fairly close.

We started off and I tried to get out decently quick as I knew there would be a bottleneck at the bridge shortly after the start. Toni flew by me within a few seconds and I chuckled to her that it was the first time I was ahead of her in a race! We had a mini-out and back turn around near the start and it let me check in on where I was, as we were with so many 5kers. I saw Toni out in the lead for females, not to far behind the lead guy (or so I thought) and then just one other female between the two of us, another 605 Race Team member. If the thought of a top 3 team sweep isn't enough to light a fire under your booty, I don't know what is!

My plan to go out hard in the first mile and see how that felt to determine my game plan for the rest of the race. I thought if I had an amazing day, maybe I could be close to my Frostbite 4 pace of 8:05. So when the first mile beeped at 8:06 I was pretty excited!

Mile 1 8:06

I felt myself start to fade in the second mile right off the bat. Uh oh. That's a bad sign. Somewhere in this mile, a male and female ran by me, which kept me from fading much more. It helped to have someone else in my sights, PLUS that gal is taking my 3rd place spot! I had hoped that if I kept her close enough, I might be able to out kick her at the end. If that's not a former sprinter mentality, then I don't know what is.

Mile 2 8:22

We started to near the bridge to cross and make our way back toward the finish line, but it's in a part of the trail I'm not used to running so I was having a hard time figuring out how far it was. And I was still pretty tired, did I mention that? I started to have some doubt start to creep in my brain, with some negative chatter. Something to the effect of "Jeri, you've barely been running the last 2.5 weeks. You're lucky you're even running today (which is true) no wonder you can't hold this hard pace, it's hard, hard is hard, you don't have to run so hard." Ok, so yes it did feel hard, but I was also halfway through a hard effort 5 mile race. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HARD. To silence the negative thoughts I turned on a mantra and hit the repeat button on my brain. With every stride I overpowered the negative self-talk with "I feel strong". This might have felt like a lie, but with each time I repeated it in my head, I felt my stride strengthen a bit. Mile 3 was my slowest of the day, but I repeated this mantra for almost the last 2.5 miles of the race, and no doubt I would've monstrously positive split the race if I hadn't.

Mile 3 8:26

Right around this time, a girl I went to college with was right behind me. On one hand, I wanted her to pass me so I could chase her instead of her being on my heels, but on the other hand, I didn't want her to get ahead of me, because the previous girl who had passed was long gone. Mantra loop continued. We started to catch up with some of the 10 mile races, the lead female passed me around mile 3 and was zooming. I tried to calculate my finishing time based on some 8:15 miles and have no clue what I came up with. My brain must've really been fighting for some oxygen.

Mile 4 8:19

With a mile to go, I really tried to push the pace knowing that I was almost done. There were a collection of ladies behind me with about a half mile to go, and I had been pushing so hard the last mile and a half that I honestly had zero confidence in any sort of kick to the finish. 

We made our way up to the bridge for the final stretch and I just kept waiting to push into a final sprint, and told myself I'd wait for someone else to do it and then I'd see if I could stay with them. But I had no clue if they were right on my shoulder, or a step or two behind, or if they were dying or looked really strong. The agony and unknown man! 

I saw Toni and Kyle with about a minute to go and immediately kicked it in, pushing hard through the finish. Looking at the race results, the gals were literally at my heels through the finish line, so I'm glad I kicked it in when I did. My stomach was not glad about the 6:29 pace I threw down, and my breakfast luna bar threatened to make its way back up post-race. Kyle joked after that I need to work on my Shelby Houlihan finishing kick. If you haven't watched her close in a track event, it is a thing of beauty. Wow.

Mile 5 8:10 pace (I had a slightly short course)

I had 4.95 miles in 41:02 (for real, there wasn't an extra 3 seconds in these legs of mine?! so annoying) for a pace of 8:17 to hit my B goal! And based on my heart rate data and puke threshold achieved, I would say that I worked really hard to hit that B goal.

I had thought I won my AG as there were 3 females in front of me, and I swear the race director called me as the winner of 30-39, but in looking at the results it looks like there was a gal between Toni and Jess that I missed during our little mini out and back. Either way, I'm thrilled with the results. Compared to last year, this race was :32/mile faster. That's craziness.

Update: the original results were incorrect and I was first in my AG and 4th female. WAHOO!!

After the awards, we bundled up and went out for a cool down run. And managed to get another snap by the photographer! Which is now my new favorite BRF photo!

Since my previous "5 mile" PR was a super short course, 4.75 miles, this one has taken its spot. That's 3 for 4 so far in 2018 on PR parties. Fingers crossed it can continue for a half this spring!! (and a marathon in the fall, but who's counting....)

You know what's better than a PR? A WoodGrain Brewing Co. beer at the finish line of a PR race. Even if your lips do turn blue and your BRF is concerned with your safety. :P

Race Result

Overall8 / 77 (10.4%)

Ages 30 - 391 / 27 (3.7%)

Gender4 / 60 (6.7%)

Race Report: Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile

I ran my first 5 mile in six years a couple of weeks ago. A friend of mine puts on the race, and a ton of my friends were running. My training program had a 5 mile or 10k scheduled, so it fit perfectly! Most of my friends were doing the ten, so I got there super early to cheer them on.

Prior to the race, I had a pretty angry stomach (typical), and my game plan was to start around 9 pace and slowly whittle it down. The gun went off, and I was keeping an eye on my watch to make sure I didn't go out at "bat out of hell" pace (as is also typical). I was a little concerned that I wasn't having to hold back at all. I was around 8:40-9. The first turn around to the south came up so soon and I was settling in to a solid strong pace. I passed a few gals here and got a glimpse at my place for females with the small out and back section. I was sitting in 12. The gals in front of me were starting to pull away, and when I glanced at my pace it was 8:39. Uff! I panicked because I thought we were 1/2 mile in to the race and I was already feeling tired. I also noticed that we were almost to 1.5 miles and I had missed my watch beep. That made me slightly less nervous, but I still let them go.

8:38
8:45

I started to get really tired during mile 3 (which should come as no surprise based on how quickly I started the race. Oops). I told myself I would put my head down and try to speed up at the half way point. And then I told myself that same thing when I was coming up on mile 4. I was working much harder on this mile than my pace reflects. Rude.

9:01
8:56

For the last mile I focused on the two girls in front of me, trying to reel them in slightly. They weren't catchable (unless they stopped to tie a shoe, lol) but I wanted to keep them in my sights! I just did not have that next level gear that I can sometimes turn on with half mile to go. I had to crank up my music to block out my labored breathing. I swear it sounded like I was honking. Oh man.

Up the final stretch someone flew by me, then turned back and motioned for me to go with her. It was one of my running pals from 605 Running Co. that was flyyyyyyying in finishing up the 10 mile. Thank god for her, because I somehow had something extra and finished hard. So hard that I have some lovely dry heaves upon finishing. Been awhile since I've experienced that! To give an idea of just how hard I finished that last stretch, my mile pace dropped 10 seconds from the last time I looked at it until I came through the finish. Woof!

8:43

I finished the 5 miles in 44:05 for a pace of 8:50 hitting my B goal, and SOOOOOO close to my A goal. I also realized that this is a PR FOR ME! My previous PR is more of a PR* as it was on a short course. And this race time plugged into a race calculator spits out my half marathon goal time (roughly) which helps me think that I'm on track for my goal!

YAY RUNNING.

Race Result

Overall24 / 93 (25.8%)

Ages 30 - 3912 / 25 (48%)

Gender19 / 68 (27.9%)

Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile Race Goals

I haven't ran a 5 mile race in years. March of 2011 to be precise. I've only raced two 5 milers, and both of them were when I was much speedier! 3/13/10 St. Patty's Day 5 mile 38:51 (short course) and 3/12/2011 Irishman Races: 5m 44:12 (as part of the Irishman races). The training plan I'm following has a 5 mile-10k race scheduled for this weekend, so I immediately signed up for the Chilly Cheeks 5 Mile that one of my running friends is the race director for.

I'm excited about doing a longer race effort to give me an idea of what my race pace might look like for the half in May. I'm really not sure what to shoot for during this race, so I used the trusty Macmillan calculator to help me calculate some paces.

A goal: 8:44 pace. This would have me around 43:42 finishing time, which would be just slightly faster than my 2011 race.

B goal: sub 9 pace/sub 45.

C goal: Sub 46 miles (9:12 pace).

Fingers crossed my legs decide they have some speed in them tomorrow!