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
8 / 77 (10.4%)
1 / 27 (3.7%)
4 / 60 (6.7%)
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