New 5K PR!

I ran a 5k last Saturday...and won...and set a new PR!

Obviously now that this is over and it went fairly well, I am pleased with it.  But leading up to the race, I wanted nothing to do with a 5k.

I have gotten in the good-for-me habit of not looking too far ahead of my training plan.  If I look ahead, I get anxious, and that does nobody any good.  For this reason, I didn't realize that I was supposed to do a 5K (or a 10K) at this point in my plan until less than a week before race day.

I really had no interest in running a 5K, particularly if it was going to be hot.  So I dragged on registering for any of them.  The night before the race I zeroed in on (The Racing Sausages 5K), it seemed as if the weather was going to be fine so I half heartedly got some running stuff together.

The only words (excuse me, WORD) of advice that I got (and really the only ones I needed) from my running advisor was "COMPETE". 

I was not really feeling COMPETE.  

Even though I watched some of the US Track and Field Outdoor National Championships the night before, including Rebecca Mehra's amazing race to get into the 800m final.  

I was not feeling it.

So I went to bed.

I woke up to my 6 AM alarm and got dressed for the race.  I gathered some things together and took some money out of my husband's wallet to pay the onsite registration fee (because I never have cash).  

My family was not feeling a race either and so I went by myself, which given the mood I was in, I was grateful to be going solo on this one.

A few exits into my drive and I realized that I didn't have my watch on.  I typically wear my Garmin 24/7 but it was bugging me the night before so I took it off to sleep...and forgot to put it back on.  I contemplated skipping it but knew that I was likely going to be running around parking lots for warms up and cool down so I exited the freeway to go back and get it.  I ended up taking the wrong exit so had to do a few U-turns.  Got home, grabbed my watch and headed back to the stadium.

I ended up in a long line of cars to get into the parking lots.  After I finally parked, I made my way over to the onsite registration table, which was very convenient.  Then I thought I should use the restroom.  Apparently I left my pins for my bib somewhere in there because when I went back to my car to get ready, I no longer had pins.  

I mean - this is not exactly the chain of events that you happening in the time leading up to your race.

I went back, grabbed pins and then realized that I had no idea where the race started.  So I asked where the start was and found it.  By this time, I had about 14 minutes before the race was going to start.  There was not time to do the 2-3 mile warm up that my aging body has become accustomed to prior to making it run fast.  I did a mile warm up, at about 7:30 pace and then it was time to line up.

I was able to start near the front, so I was grateful for that.

The gun went off and we were off.

It has been almost three years since I ran a 5K.  I used to run several of them a summer, but fell out of practice when I became uber focused on the marathon. I had no idea what pace to run, but the "5k pace" my advisor has me using is 5:55-6:10 a mile for my speed workouts.  This always feels so god damn fast in workouts, but my first mile of this race was faster than that pace window and felt slow.  I wasn't feeling the burn that I remembered 5Ks feeling like years ago.

That said, I was scared to push myself because I didn't want to burn out.  There was another woman with a college jersey running just in front of me.  My goal was to stay running with her.  

At around mile 2 though, I decided to pass her.  I spent much of the 3rd mile trying to chase down a guy ahead of me.  I passed him on the way out of the Miller Park stadium and made my way to the finish.  It was there that I noticed the clock in the 18:30s.  

PR FOR ME BABY!  My official finish was 18:38, a 15 second PR.  First woman across the line.

The outcome of this race was good, but my race tactics were terrible.  I did not "COMPETE".  I definitely was running fast, but not all out. Each mile that I ran was progressively slower.  By the time it started to hurt, the race was over.  

Despite this, I will take the PR (at my age, they aren't coming fast and loose anymore!)...and maybe run the 5K a little more frequently than I have in the last 3 years. :)