Today we have another guest post from BRF extraordinaire, Toni. Leading up to the half, I suspected that she would run under 1:45, but I told her I thought she could run a 1:46. Mind games, man. In the half in January, her goal was to break 1:50 and without realizing what she was doing, she ran a 1:48. I wanted to see if lightning would strike twice on this race which only became a goal race as the weather was pretty darn perfect as we crept up on it. Spoiler alert: she smashed her PR by another 4 minutes in just 3 short months. INSANE! Without further adieu, here's Toni's race report:
605. The Glorious Race.
Race morning started out great and I felt really good, I kept looking outside thinking, “Oh! It’s going to be so cold in these shorts!” but as soon as I opened the car door when we got parked and I wasn’t shocked by the cold, I really started to get amped up! We’re totally prepared for this race, the weather is beautiful. It’s going to be a great day!
There wasn’t much for a warm-up for this race and we cut it pretty close getting to the actual start line, but I wasn’t nervous for this race and I didn’t really have a plan. I was totally winging it, to be honest. When I took off, I figured I would run comfortably hard and at one mile see what time that put me at.
The first mile always goes so fast –
7:57 – At this point I thought maybe I would just see how many sub 8 miles I could manage before feeling like I needed to slow down.
Mile 2 - 7:53
Between these two miles I was supposed to see my husband – I was concerned about not seeing him, but I thought to myself “maybe I’m just SO fast he’ll barely miss me,” as it turns out, he thought the race started a half an hour later than it actually did, so there’s that.
Mile 3 - 7:54
Mile 4 - 7:56
Mile 5 - 7:52
Mile 6 - 7:58- This is where I took my first GU and that ended up being way too late, you will see.
At the turn around I saw Benson, and he said to me, “You’re killing it! Way to go!” and I was so proud of myself, it made me feel awesome, in all honesty I think it was his encouragement that kept the next two miles under 8 because I was really starting to feel the sluggish effects of lack of nutrition. (I’m not going to say I was bonking because I refuse to believe I was careless enough to bonk)
Mile 7 - 7:49
Mile 8 - 7:57
Mile 9 – 8:17 – This is the part where my body is giving me the middle finger for starving it, so I took my second GU.
Mile 10 – 8:18
Mile 11 – 8:08
Mile 12 – 8:12 – By this point I have given up all hope of ever running a sub 8 again for the rest of my life.
Mile 13 – 7:54. – ONLY because it was downhill.
Total time: 1:44:24 – This is surely a mistake because there’s no way I can run under 1:45. Except that I did, and I still can’t believe my legs did it.
The best part about running fast, is that I get to see more people cross the finish line, that is easily my favorite part. 605 put on such a wonderful half and I was so excited to be a part of the inaugural running.
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
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!!
After the race, we jogged a mile to cool down and then met up with our husbands to enjoy the parade and drink some beers. I love St. Patty's day!!
I love late race starts. I love sleeping in, even though sleeping in meant 6:30am, followed by a turn off the alarm and reset for 7:30am. Still felt great. I got out of bed, tried to figure out what to wear, and even had time to use my neti pot to flush my overloaded sinuses. Too much of a visual picture there? Sorry. THERE WERE BOOGERS EVERYWHERE! Too graphic? sorry.
I picked up Toni at 9am and we headed south. We got to Beresford around 9:30am and it was then that I realized we had 90 minutes until the race started. Ha. Oops. We hung out inside the school, catching up with friends until about 10:15 and then we headed up to do a warm up. As soon as we stepped outside, the wind had picked up and it had started to sleet/snow. WHAT. IS. THIS. Luckily within a couple of minutes, it stopped. We did a two mile shake out with a few strides thrown in. We determined it was warmer than we thought it'd be, and were thrilled we opted for capris instead of running pants.
We had time to snag a picture with the SFWR crew and our favorite speedy elite runner Bensane.
Before too long it was time to board the buses to be bussed out to the race start. They have 3 race courses for this event and pick the one that is most with the wind. There wasn't much wind, but we were bussed out to the south.
One of my running friends said she thought she'd be around 8 pace, so I thought I'd keep her in my sights. Another running friend ran exactly the pace I wanted to last year, so I'd hoped to stick with her as well. The race started, and we were off!
I got out a little too hard, probably but wanted to get ahead of the clumps of people. I felt good, but was a little startled when I glanced at my watch and it said 7:41. Ooooooh, that's too fast. I didn't consciously slow down, but I must've or my watch finally caught up to me, because I settled around an 8:22 pace. Perfect.
Once I settled in, I realized that I was feeling good and I wanted to push the pace a little bit. I went by a few of my running friends, and luckily the gal I was hoping to follow based on last year, leap frogged back in front of me. I was really pleased when mile 1 clicked off on my watch.
Mile 1 8:11
Typically I slow way down in mile 2 of a faster race because I've gone out too hard, but I kept pushing. And I was pleasantly surprised when I was feeling pretty good still. We came up on the halfway, and I did some quick math to determine that I wanted to be at or under 16:30 to shoot for that sub 33 that had become my new goal time. And then in all the math calculations, I forgot to actually look at my race time when I hit mile 2. Lolz.
Mile 2 8:10
Who is this consistent runner? Because it's surely not me.
Ok, mile 3 will hurt. It always does. During the warm up miles, Toni and I were talking about the mile. Back when I was a miler I would always go out too hard on lap one, lap two I would suffer dearly because I went out too hard, lap three I would work to make up what I lost in lap two, but the split would be basically be the same as the second because my legs were fatigued AF and then lap four I would kick it in because I was a sprinter at heart, and it's easy for my brain to think about running super hard for just a shorter period of time. I tried to embrace the hurt, knowing it was going to be hard. I was running pretty solo at this point, but thought if I could pick up the pace in this mile, I could maybe put myself in a position to out kick some of the folks in the pack of runners in front of me.
Mile 3 8:06
I started getting really hot during the final mile. The sun came out in full force shortly after the race started. For a minute I contemplated shedding the shirt because I was so warm, but I knew I couldn't finanagle my bib off in time. I wanted to drop the pace to sub 8, I was tired and hot but that's all the more reason to get it over with fast, right? The two peeks I had was at 7:48 and 7:54 pace. Uff da.
I started to get really tired with about a half mile to go. That group that I had hoped to kick and catch up to? Well they also had a kick and pulled away even further. There was a small group of two mile run/walkers that I had caught up to, so I tried to focus on them. With about .35 to go I really tried to kick to finish strong.
Mile 4 8:03 pace (my watch read 3.98, so my last split was 7:51 for an 8:03 pace, others had 3.99 or 4.0 so maybe I just killed the tangents for once in my life!)
Official time: 32:20 for 8:05 pace.
Average HR 170, Max HR 180.
Race Result
87 / 245 (35.5%)
7 / 42 (16.7%)
30 / 143 (21%)
My A goal for this race was 8:19 pace. 8:19. That's almost 15 seconds slower than I ran. To say that I'm ecstatic with my performance is an understatement. After a really rough half, where I felt like death, it really made me question my fitness and my training, and all of the not so fun thoughts that go through your brain on a bad day. This race day proved that I've been working my butt off this past year, and that I've made significant progress, and that there's still speed in these ol' legs. In October I ran a 5k in 8:11 pace, and I ran a mile farther, faster at this race. If that doesn't show progress, I don't know what will (again, saying that 100% to my brain that sometimes has doubts :P).
Toni ran a really strong race, and had time to snag some stellar finishing pictures of me. What a BRF!
After the race, we got in a one mile cool down, that felt hard. I looked down at my watch, and expected it to be at a quarter mile and it was at .08. I thought for sure my Garmin was wrong. Nope. Just had felt like forever. Uff. After the run, we went to the after party at the Bridges for free chili and chicken noodle soup. This race is great! I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't done it!
I have some big goals, some of them I've shared on here before, some of them I've kept, and will keep, to myself. I've very driven by goals, and have always been someone who has no problem setting goals and then working my butt off to achieve them. I was texting one of my running buddies, Courtney, the other day while ice bathing, and we were talking about fall race plans. She asked if I ended up deciding on a fall marathon and I said no, but that I was shooting for a half PR.
Uff da.
Saying it outloud makes it seem real and scary and really scary. My half marathon PR is from April 2011. It was in the middle of marathon training, while training for my third marathon. At that point in my running, I had two years of really strong, insanely consistent running under my belt. The time period of 2010-2011 is arguably the best distance shape I've ever been in.
So to look at this goal, it seems a little crazy on paper. My last half marathon was a 2:05. To take off 15 minutes from that time in six months, might seem impossible.
It has been so long since I've even thought a PR could be possible, that I'm letting the craziness take root and not be freaked out by it.
I've been running fairly consistently now for the past year and a half INJURY FREE. This is huge. I've added in functional strength training that has 100% changed my body's power, speed, and ability to hold up over longer distances. I've learned SO MUCH about running, and training, and injury prevention in the past 7 years, and using that knowledge has kept me healthy as well.
Additionally, training through the obnoxious heat in the summer here and then traveling to the east in mid-November for my goal race will only help me reach my goals.
Overall, I'm really excited to have big goals again, because that means I'm putting in the work to make them seem feasible. Regardless of if I PR in November, I'm just so darn excited to be running healthy and strong and loving running enough to be putting all the time and effort into the sport again.
I woke up at 6am to eat some breakfast and head to town to do an early packet pick up and some warm up miles. I was really close to hitting 100 miles for the month of July so that helped me get there to do a couple of extra. I picked up my bib and headed out. It was so thick and muggy, and my head was completely full of mucus. Did that paint a vivid enough picture for you? Uff.
The warm up was a complete slog and I ended up only going 1.5 miles and being completely drenched. I did manage to get some monster snot rockets blown out during the warm up so I could breathe a little bit.
We all lined up for the race announcements and I was excited to see some of my runner friends. I found a couple of pals I thought I could try to stay with and/or keep in my sights based on our recent 5k race series times.
We started out and I glanced down at my watch a couple minutes in to it to make sure I hadn't gone out too fast (as I tend to do, 7's? um... no thanks, not right now!) and was shocked that my labored pace was an 8:40. Uh... according to Mr. McMillan Running Calculator that should be pretty doable based on my 5k paces. Shoooooot.
Mile 1 8:53
From there I decided just to run comfortably hard, and maybe my legs would loosen up and have some speed in them the second half of the race! (Spoiler alert: they did not have any speed or additional pep in the second half). I tried to just stay competitive in that I worked to catch people that were loosing steam in front of me.
Mile 2 9:15
At the turn around I glanced at my watch and saw 18:20, so my new goal was to finish around 36:40, as I knew I was fading and thought that might help me hunker down a bit. I leap frogged with a couple of gals during this stretch before one finally left me in her dust.
Mile 3 9:09
I tried to reel in a male and female that were in my sights during the final mile and tried to kick with .7 to go in the race. My mile split will tell you how slowly I must've been going for that first .3 miles. My legs just felt like lead.
Looking at my running form in the race pictures, I can totally tell why it felt like garbage. For some reason I've reverted back to my bad non-glute using running form. I like to refer to his as my sad panda form. Uff, my hamstrings ache just looking at it.
I finished the last .25 pretty strong, and even had a 7:20 something final kick.
Mile 4 9:08
.05 :21
My final time was 36:48 for a pace of 9:06. A PR. (auto PR, but whatevs)
Great start to a race series even if it was a last than fun race performance! That's a heckuva lot faster than I would've run on my own on Sunday in the humidity with a head cold!
My summer racing schedule has been lacking in a major way. Last year I signed up for a ton of races, and ended up running a lot of 5ks in less than favorable conditions. This year I decided that I would monitor the weather for the weekend before committing to any races. Thank God I did. We've had a miserable summer! Except this past week. And conveniently that was a cutback week. I managed to find a close-to-home 1st annual 5k for $15 bucks. Sweet! I wrangled some runner friends together, and it was on.
The race had an 8:30 start, which would suck, normally, but it was 60* with a breeze. Yeah, there was still 90% humidity, but whatever, I'm almost used to that now (gasp, I know!). Tom, Brent, and I took off for a mile warm up and were all complaining about how crappy our legs felt all week long. Neat! This should be a fun race!
Looking back at previous 5k results, I saw that I always went out too fast in that first mile (7:30) and then bombed hard in mile two (8:00+). My goal was to hold off a bit for the first mile, get mile two under 8 for the first time EVER in a 5k... yeah... wtf? And then gun it as hard as I could for the remainder.
We lined up near the race "start" as there was no line. The coordinator thanked us all for coming and in the same breath said, on your marks, get set go! Uh....... ok. Garmin START!
We started off in to the wind and I tucked in behind a couple of xc chicks. I was sitting in 4th and made myself sloooooooooooooow down when I realized I was flying at a 7:12 pace. Hi, this is the opposite of not going out too fast. Apparently I settled in a bit too much, because my first mile split came in at 7:43. Not bad, I was shooting for 7:39s.
Mile two I just kept pushing and keeping the two girls in my sights. At some point a chick with a big black lab came flying by our group and I assumed she was just out for a training run, until I saw her turn around with the group at the halfway mark. Great! Apparently I'm in 5th not 4th. Grrrrr. At the halfway point I saw a PR was in the bag if I could hang on to my pace for the remainder of the race. Shortly after the turn around I pass a dude, which made me happy. Mile 2 7:49. Sub 8 win.
Mile 3 I spend trying to catch up to the two girls in front of me. It's dorky, but I kept repeating, "Are you going to settle for 5th or work your butt off for 3rd?!?!" I hoped that I could get close enough that I could outkick them. I started my kick with about 1/2 a mile to go, but just ran out of course to catch 'em with. Prior to the race start, they had said there'd be a board to record race times, if you wished, and someone calling out finishing times at the finish, so there were neither. I'd estimate I was 5-10 seconds behind the girls. Mile 3 was 7:36.
I was bummed that there weren't official race times because I know that 3 of the girls weren't in their 20s. Oh well, I'm happy enough with a smart, fast race. I was 5th female, and 9th overall. I'd estimate there were about 75 racers total. Again no official numbers. :)
I finished in 23:09. The race was a smidge short, which is a bummer, but it gives me a new time to shoot for the next 5k.
The one thing I found super interesting once I flipped through my garmin for the race data was that my heart rate wasn't anywhere near where I expected it to be. I actually turned off the auto scroll (where the garmin toggles between heart rate screen and main screen) because I knew I would be terrified of the heart rate creeping closer and closer to my max heart rate. I averaged a heart rate of 170 with a max of 175. I expected to be tippie-toeing on 190. Even my tempo runs have been maxing at 180-185 towards the end. Maybe it was just the difference in cooler temps...... maybe I just didn't run hard enough. Gaaaaaaaaah!
Saturday I took on my first ever 10k, in memory of my friend who recently passed away from breast cancer. In lieu of my normal Team Green style, I wore pink (whaaaaaaa??!?!?). No worries, I still rep'd with my green Kinvaras (phew...). I got to the race super early because this event is known to drawn major crowds. Before too long I found my running friends/Daily Mile crew. A few of us took off on an easy, easy warm up jog. I proceeded to ask Tom what his goal pace/goal time would be 12,000x. I'm sure I was annoying x 12,000. :)
Last year's race was gun timed, so we made sure to line up near the front of the 7:30-8 minute mile pace sign. I started my watch when the gun was shot and crossed the line a few short seconds afterward. I knew that the first couple of miles were going to be up and down, so I tried not to watch my Garmin too much. Except when I looked down and it said 7:20s. Uh yeah.... slow down a smidge. Mile 1 7:45
The second mile was more rolling hills, and I was surprised at how good I felt. I've never done a 10k, but I've done lots of 5ks, and mile 2 is usually a shit-show. I was running under 8 minute pace and feeling just dandy. Mile 2 7:56
It was around this time that I lost sight of Tom's red shirt (I expected him to beat me, but wanted to keep him in my sight as long as I could). We continued on to the bike path which was much too narrow to house all the runners. There was one spot on a bridge where a couple was running shoulder to shoulder and I was stuck waiting until we crossed. There was another area where I had to surge through the grass to pass someone because we had started to get some of the out and back traffic. At the halfway point I was at 24:48 (I think). Mile 3 7:57
Going in to the race, I figured the fourth mile was going to suck. I assumed it would be the equivalent of mile two in a 5k. But nope. I kept right along, slowly passing some folks that had started off too fast. This was my favorite mile because I got to see a lot of my friends who were running since it was the out-and-back traffic. I only managed to rustle up energy to cheer for Sara, however. Sorry other runner friends. :P Mile 4 7:57
Uff. Mile 5 was hot. The sun was up in full force, and we were running in to it without any trees to shade us. I started to get hot. A couple of chicks passed me and I promised my legs I'd catch them in the final mile. I also think there might have been a slight incline during this mile. But really, I just wanted to be done. Ooops, there goes my "all miles sub-8, plan." Mile 5 8:08
I got to the final mile and started to think about Jess. I knew this would be the toughest mile of the race, and kindly asked her to take over for me. ;) I imagine that heaven makes you a crazy fast runner automatically, no? :) I tried to do some mental math (which clearly is a bad idea because I suck at math when running, and KNOW THIS) to see what I could finish at. I did pass the few girls that had passed me during my previous miles slow down. Phew. Pride avenged...er something...
There was a nice little downhill in that mile, and I was disappointed to see that there were two separate finish lines, and the one I was shooting for was the furthest away. GAH! I've done the 5k in this race two years previously, and the start/finish line was moved way back. I probably should've adjusted my "kick" based on this, but my brain was tired and didn't think. I noticed that I didn't have my normal speedy finish in me. But I also wasn't on the verge of barfing my guts out (my concern after the half finish). I kept my eye on a couple of people right in front of me, and passed them.
Mile 6 7:57 .25 1:56 (7:08 pace)
I'm kind of annoyed by the extra .05, since that equates to what... 15-20 seconds at that pace? For once I ran the tangents like a mofo (thanks to Tom explaining the race route in detail before we started). But oh well. Also, I was treated to a nice surprise, when the official results were posted and the race was actually chip timed, not gun timed like we thought. Hello extra seconds taken off my time. :)
My official time was 49:27 for a pace of 7:54.
And can we talk for one moment about my insane consistency (ignoring miles 1 & 5) for the race? If I had tried to run 7:57s they would've been all over the place. Too funny.
Sub 50? Goal met!
Sub 8 minute pace? Goal met!
Not barfing at the finish? Goalt met!
Overall for women, I placed 46 out of 349. After creeping on the 5k results, I realized that at my 10k pace, I would've finished somewhere around 20th out of 1100 women. How in the world was the 10k that much more competitive?!?!? Jeepers.
It was a great day, and I know with some speedwork focus (yes, last speedwork training run was April 20th, oops!) I can definitely take that 10k time down. Plus it makes me think that my 5k time should be much speedier than it is.
Oh, and according to Kyle I gave everyone spectating a peepshow of my cheeks on my final kick to the finish. So maybe that's why some of those dudes let me pass them. ;)
**Clearly my Team Green fan club aka paparazzi extraordinaire were not in attendance, and Kyle TGIT (Team Green in Training) has not yet been taught in the art of spectating AND taking hundreds of photos. So just imagine me in pink, with my stellar highlighter yellow arm sleeves, and booty shorts with cheekage. Also, I'm running faaaaaaaaaaaaaast.**
