Running Down the Dream: "Run a 5K in the middle of your long run," they said. "It will be fun," they said.

It actually was fun! And if you know me you know I never say that about 5Ks...they are usually too short and painful!

I ran the Sertoma Duck Waddle 5K today as a last-minute race. My parents were coming to the Duck Fest for the car show from Kansas. I noticed the race on the festival schedule, and that the overall winners won gift cards. I told Jon about it, but then decided that I didn't want to run it because I didn't want to modify my 54 mile training week. He proceeded to talk me into running it to try to win (not for time), so I said I would ask my coach, who I expected to say no. Well, he said to go for it, but also to keep my schedule as planned this week (which was what I said I would plan to do when I emailed him about this race). So it was decided and I ran this race coming off 11.6 miles and a double on Thursday, and during a 14 mile long run. I did skip bootcamp yesterday so my legs wouldn't be 100% shot!

When I signed up for the race, I thought it started at 7:00 a.m. (I think I just made that up or assumed it, since it is June in Missouri after all). Yesterday I looked at the website and saw that it actually started at 8:00 a.m. My main fear was that I was going to finish this race and then run 8ish more miles when it was really hot, so I kind of started dreading it.

I decided I would run more miles before the race when it was less hot, but due to last minute who's riding with who debates, I only had time for 3.5 miles before the race (we were taking 2 vehicles so my family didn't have to wait around while I did my miles after the race, and initially I was going to drive there alone so they could also leave the house later, but then Albani decided she wanted to ride there with me, etc.). Those 3.5 were at 7:45 pace and felt okay, but I was absolutely drenched in sweat and kind of wishing that I had started my long run at 5:00 a.m. and not worried about this race! I hate racing in a sports bra without a shirt (although I train that way all of the time, it's different on deserted farm roads), but it was so hot I stopped caring.

The race started, and one woman took off around 6:10 pace, followed by one man. I figured I'd better cover her, and I knew I could run the thing at 6:10 pace although I didn't really want to! She faded by the half mile, and then I was running side by side with the overall male. I could pretty much tell at this point that I wasn't going to have competition in this race. I decided that I would just run with the overall male until the final half mile or so, and then push to try to win overall overall. A lot of this was just me being lazy, and I kept thinking about how I had to run 7.5 more base pace miles after the race!

Running with the first male felt awfully easy, and when my Garmin beeped a 6:28 first mile, I realized that was why it felt so easy (that's about half pace for me). I decided I would go ahead and speed up a bit, because although I didn't want to kill myself I did still want to be under 20, and he was fading a bit. So from then on it was just me and the lead cyclist. At the turn around I got a look at everyone behind me, and with how slowly I'd started I knew my win was pretty much locked in.

Although in the end the course was accurate (Garmin had 3.12), the course mile markers were off, with the 1 mile mark at the 1.2 point on my Garmin and the 2 mile mark around 1.9 on my Garmin. My second Garmin split was 6:18 with some uphill, and I felt far too good for mile 2 of a 5K, but that was sure nice! I pushed for a little faster last mile, running it in 6:12, and also kicked it in on the final 0.12 (5:21 pace) once I saw my family cheering. I stopped my Garmin at 19:35 after I crossed, my finishing pictures show 19:33-19:34, and my official time was 19:37, so who really knows what exactly my time was (there was no chip mat at the start, and we started and finished in different places, which is always a recipe for screwy times, so I am honestly surprised it was this close).

It's always a good day when I beat all of the men and women! I finished feeling like I'd run a solid tempo, but not an all-out race, which was good since I had 7.5 more miles to go. I drank a 20 oz. bottle of water, wiped the sweat off my face, and headed back out. I finished the 7.5 at 7:38 average pace and SO very sweaty! I was glad to keep this in the 7:30s for sure.

My family picked up my awards while I was still running. I won a cute little trophy, a gift card to Academy Sports, and a gift certificate for pet-sitting (probably the most unique prize I've received!), so it was worth running this. I also feel like I may just try for a sub-19 5K when I'm a little rested, when I have competition, when I'm not running a long run, and when it's not 88 degrees "feels like" temperature -- but, that will be painful and scary!

The moral of this story: 5Ks are not at all painful or scary when you run the first mile at half marathon pace.