Race Report: Firecracker 5k

On the 4th of July I did the Lennox Firecracker 5k. I've done the 10k twice and this is my second year doing the 5k. Leading up to the race, I looked up my previous 5k time there to see if maybe a course PR was in the works. 24:06? No. Nope. I did want to go out hard and just see how long I could hang on to it. It was 97% humidity and 73 degrees, but you never know unless you try right?

I got up early and really wished that I hadn't signed up at 10:18pm the night before, because I wanted to keep sleeping. Kyle agreed to come to the race with me which was great, but he was taking his jolly sweet time getting ready and we ended up leaving our house 10 minutes after I had hoped to be at the race start for my warm up run. Womp. By the time we got there and I picked up my race bib, it was already time to meet up for our group picture and then the picture got taken late so I STILL didn't have time to do a warm up, and it was basically time to start. Harumph. I did get in my glute band exercises and leg swings.

The race started after three failed firecracker duds, with a whistle, and we were off. I told Courtney that I'd ignore my watch, and I listened, for the most part. I was running with a group of ladies in my running group and wanted to stay with them as best I could. Within a few minutes I was already drenched in sweat. I could feel myself slowing down toward the end of the first mile, which makes sense because the one peek I did take at my watch was in the 7's. Oops.

Mile 1 8:15

During the second mile I focused on catching up to a handful of people in front of me. My friends had pulled away a bit, but I thought I could still catch a second wind and pull off a good kick to catch up with them! After I caught up to that small handful, I was pretty lonely and by myself until the race started to merge with 1 and 2 mile folks, mostly walkers at that point. At 1.55 I was at 13:08 so I told myself just over 10 minutes to go, 4 songs. Totally doable.

Mile 2 8:59

The race was a different route this year because the Main Street in town was under construction. I'm not super familiar with the town, so I was excited when I thought we were on the final home stretch of the race. AND we had a few blocks of beautiful shade. I made myself run as hard as I could during the shade, and then I started to see people turn to the left. The illusion was broken, it wasn't a straight shot to the finish as I was hoping/wishing. I saw my watch was close to hitting 26 minutes, so I started counting to 26:16, which would've been an even split for the first half/last half of the race, and eventually ran out of numbers to count. As I turned the corner, I saw the time clock nearing close to 27 minutes so that helped me speed up ever so slightly.

Mile 3 8:51

.13 :56 (7:11 pace)

I ran the 3.13 in 27:02 for a pace of 8:39 (just slightly faster pace than the 5k earlier this month in similar atrocious humidity). The official results had me at 26:58, which is awfully nice of them. :)

Kyle said I came in faster than he was expecting so he didn't get any pictures of me. I asked him how I looked coming through, curious how my form was through the finish, and his response was, "tired. really tired." Well thanks Kyle. :P

Race Report: Lennox Firecracker 10k

I had put off signing up for the Lennox Firecracker 10k until the morning of the race, because I wanted to see what the temperature held for the morning. I probably should've opted for the 5k based on the 91% humidity, but I wanted to get in a hard effort 10k to give me an idea of where my speed and endurance was leading into half marathon training.

I had hoped to be around 8:50 pace for the race. Spoiler alert: that didn't happen.

The firecracker went off, but since it went off at the start of the 1 mile/2 mile/5k and the 10k were lined up an opposite way, we were all a bit jostled when our starter just shouted out "Uh you should go now!" and we all took off.

There was a much smaller group for the 10k than normal, and I found myself all by my lonesome before we got to mile one.

Mile 1 9:02

I focused on trying to keep an even pace and not slowing down too much.

Mile 2 9:09

I did a decent job of that until we hit the portion on gravel during the 4th mile.

Mile 3 9:09

Mile 4 9:22

During this point I found a couple of people to chase, so I focused on the backs of their shirts to not fade any further.

Mile 5 9:21

I passed two of the three folks I was chasing during the final mile, but got very annoyed at the traffic on the open road. There was an SUV that literally ran me off the road because someone else was running in the middle of the road ahead of me, and I was hugging the curb. I ended up having to hop up on the sidewalk to pass the vehicle and dodge him. My final mile reflected how hard I worked in the last mile with my fastest split of the day.

Mile 6 8:57

The course ended up being a little bit short with my watch showing 6.06 miles. I heard that the 5k was .1 long, so it kind of averages out with the humidity and running twice as long, right? :P

I finished the race in 55:25 for a pace of 9:09.



More importantly, my nephew Harrison was in South Dakota and ran his very first 5k. So proud!!

 

Race Report: Lennox Firecracker 10k

Friday morning, I woke up for the Lennox 10k and wished I wasn't running. My stomach was beyond angry and I couldn't calm it down. We got to the race and I strongly considered signing up for the 5k, but I convinced myself to do the 10k. Because of my stomach problems, I didn't get in as long of a warm up jog as I was hoping for. I did squeak in a half mile and that left me with time to do leg swings, form drills, and glute exercises, followed by a couple of striders.

It was time for the race and the set up was really wonky. The 10k was starting with the 5k/2 mile/1 mile at our backs going in the opposite direction. They had the starting gun at the front of that group instead of the 10k, so when the gun sounded, we all stood around until someone shouted at us "That's you guys! GO!" Oh ok, I started my garmin right when I crossed the starting line.

I planned to go out in an 8:40 pace, so when I looked down and saw a 7:20, I reeled myself in. I couldn't believe how many people were still flying by me at that pace. Is everyone planning to run a sub 7:30 pace? I'll just be back here bringing up the rear I guess. (After looking at the results, yup! I pretty much brought up the rear, yet my 10k pace would've won at AG award for a 5k. Whatevs.)

Mile 1 8:36

I felt pretty comfortable during the first mile and thought that maybe I could hold that 8:30-8:40 pace for the duration of the race! There were a few people spaced out in front of me, so I just set my sights on slowly catching up to them. The race route was just a loop around the country surrounding the city so it was pretty boring, but it was nice and flat.

Mile 2 8:26

Well alright, speeding up a bit and still feeling good. I found myself slowly creeping up on another small group of people and just set my sights on them. I told myself that I was gaining speed and they were getting tired.

Mile 3 8:27

I did a little math and realized if I could keep it up, I could run a 52:xx like Kyle had predicted. Well damn if that boy doesn't know his stuff! Mile four the wind was at my back so I started to feel HOT. There was a water station so I chugged half a glass and dumped the other half on my head. Ahhhhh.

Mile 4 8:34

I lost some steam in mile four and mile five brought the dreaded gravel mile. Uff. Luckily I only had 2.2 miles left (what I kept telling myself) and I knew I could keep pushing and not blow up. I haven't had that sort of confidence or realization before or during a race in a long time, so it's nice to be in tune with my abilities. I had been chasing a guy most of the gravel section and finally caught up to him. Thank goodness he was my rabbit during that section so I didn't slow down and throw in the towel.

Mile 5 8:51

With a slower gravel mile, I knew I really had to kick it up the final 1.2 miles to come in under 53 minutes. I was all by myself so I tried to just put my head down and push. When my watch hit 5.7 miles I told myself I had four minutes to haul booty to the finish line. I also thought "shoot! There haven't been any mile markers. For all you know, you're way over (like usual) and will just miss 53!" 

Mile 6 8:22

As I got closer to the school I realized that the course might actually be a bit short. Once I saw the finish line I had a full dead sprint because I was expecting to have another .1 to go!

Look! No heel strike here!!!

I hit the finish line in 51:41 for a pace of 8:20 for a full 6.2. By my estimation on the regular course distance, based on my pace and finishing speed, I would've likely run around a 52:20, which is still well under my A goal. WAHOO!!

Running my second fastest 10k at the beginning of marathon training just has me even more excited to knock this training cycle out of the park. PRs are gonna roll, yo.

Since I signed up race morning, on a piece of paper, I somehow got in the results as Jerry, a 30 year old male, so I'm happy I didn't win an AG award as a female, because we jetted off to the cabin shortly after the race was done. No time to argue. :)

Firecracker 10k Race Goals

I've debated all week about running tomorrow's race. Kyle and I have plans to go to his parents' cabin for the fourth of July weekend, and if I decided to bag the race, we could go up Thursday after work and have almost a whole additional day of fun. So I decided to let the weather decide my fate.

Lo and behold, a cold front pushed through midway through this week. Rumor has it, it was 47 degrees last night (=heaven). And Friday's forecast is mid- to low 60s. Insanely humid, and windy. But 60s! So I guess I'm racing.

Kyle is thrilled.

I solicited advice from running friends much of today to help me form my race goals and they are something as follows:

• PGSPR. Currently my PGSPR (Post-grad school PR) is 55:17.
• Course PR. I ran this race in 2011 (and crashed and burned). I ran a 54:14. I ran a 3 minute positive split, or something ridiculous like that. I just re-read my race report and laughed like a hyena. Enjoy that here.
• Sub 53. This is Kyle's prediction. 

10k from 2011

5k from 2010