Trick or Trot 5K: Sweet 18s

I finally put together a solid 5K race!  In case you don't want to weed through the details below, the basics are that I tried to run around 10K effort and without looking at my watch, and ended up feeling really good and finished in 18:46 with some left in the tank.  After a very lengthy string of 19:0X 5Ks, even though I'd run under 19 in the second 5K of a 10K, I finally made it official!  The struggle has been real.

The Trick or Trot had a 5:00 p.m. start time.  I haven't done many afternoon/evening races, and the only reason I did this one was because I won a free entry, needed more 5Ks for my running club's Runner of the Year competition, and had a child who was super stoked to wear her Halloween costume early.  Since I've only run three afternoon races as an adult, I'm not sure on best way to handle all of the hours of the day leading up to the race, but this one was a perfect one to experiment with since it was a treated as a workout instead of a race.  5Ks scare me so much that I was thankful that my coach told me not to run it all out (isn't it crazy that 3.1 miles intimidate me more than 26.2?!)!  I was also glad to get the opportunity to give an afternoon race a try under relaxed conditions, as I've always been scared to run one as a goal race since I'm not used to them, but supposedly our bodies do better at running fast in the afternoon than in super early morning.  Even though I ran several second runs in the evenings during my last training cycle, they were all easy runs, so I just wasn't sure how I'd feel.

I slept in until 7:30 a.m. (glorious!), then did a 3 mile shake out run immediately followed by stretching, an electrolyte drink, and a sizable breakfast, taking advantage of that post-run window when your muscles are little sponges ready to soak up nutrients, carbs, and hydration.  I also donned some compression socks, which I wore around all day.  It was a good day for us to relax at home after being on the go the past two weekends (I can't believe the Prairie Fire Marathon was only 2 weeks ago!), which meant a lot of laundry, cleaning, Halloween decorating, etc. but nothing too strenuous and also some reading and legs up the wall time.  With the race starting at 5:00 p.m., I knew I'd start my warm-up 4:15ish, so I knew I didn't want to eat anything much after 1:00ish, and I had a light lunch around that time.  Some of my worry about afternoon races stems from not knowing what to eat/not eat all day leading up to the event, because I don't want to eat too much or too little and have problems because of it.

Albani wore her Darth Vader Halloween costume, so we had a fun time getting dressed!  I wasn't as festive since it was 74 degrees, but I did wear an orange sports bra and black shorts.  I also put my hair in two French braids, which I used to do in high school when I raced but never take the time to do for morning races now.

My sweet Darth Vader

Result of waiting around all day for a race

When we arrived at the race site, I could tell it was going to be teeny tiny, and when I picked up my packet I noted about 15 runners signed up on the registration sheet.  No worries, though!  This was a workout and I hoped it would be a fun run.  I accidentally set our car alarm off when getting water during my warm-up, and had to run over to Jon and Albani who were on the playground about a quarter mile away to get the car key to stop it, while people looked at me perhaps wondering if I was running away following stealing something from a car (once they looked closely at the car it was probably obvious that there was nothing good to be taken from it, however).

You guessed it - during my warm-up, when I take good running pics

When the gun went off, I found myself immediately out front running what I felt like was my 10K pace (6:10-6:15).  A look at my watch around the half mile confirmed that I was at 6:10 pace - perfect.  It looked like it was just going to be me and the lead car, which was kind of what I expected when I saw the small field.  The second half mile had a good amount of decline in it, so that made me speed up and my 1 mile split was 6:02.  This felt nice and 10K pace still, but I figured the rest of my race would be slower because I wouldn't have the decline in any other miles.

The lead car sped ahead of me after taking me around a turn, and I started worrying that the driver had taken me the wrong way or something, but then I saw him get out of the car and put a cone down in the road for the hair pin turn-around.  When I got to the turn-around, I saw that it was marked with a duck, meaning it was the turn-around from the Sertoma Duck Waddle 5K and also meaning the course would be accurate!  This was good news because I'd gone into this one wondering if it would be off.

I kept plugging along to a second mile of 6:01.  Well, at that point it was time to try for a finish in the 18s!  I knew the last mile would be tough to keep at 6:00 pace since I had to go back up the decline, and I was also thinking about how I would be running a 16 mile long run in 12 hours, but I hoped to do it in 6:10-6:15, and I ended up putting down a 6:09.  My finishing kick at 5:46 pace was enough for an official time of 18:46, although I didn't get my watch stopped for a few more seconds.  I won overall by over 5 minutes, which is a first!

Garmin splits

Jon gets the best finishing clock shots -
he told me it's because he "used to race"

Wahoo!

It felt really good to get this done, especially when it wasn't on my radar here!  I was planning to go for a time in the 18s at the Turkey Trot 5K next month, but if I actually try there I will probably run 19:0X, haha!  The downside was that this course wasn't certified, but since my Garmin read exactly 3.10 on the out-and-back course with only a few turns, I'm saying it had to be quite close, as the last time I ran an out-and-back certified 5K it read 3.11.  My all-time PR is 18:25 anyhow (I've done an 18:18 on an un-certified course, and also a 17:58 on one my Garmin had at 2.95 miles), so it's not a question of counting for that or anything.  Just happy to see the 18s as a 35-year-old!

The best part of the event was Albani winning the costume contest!  Her eye lit up so much when they handed her the trophy.  She was in my opinion the cutest Darth Vader ever.  She kept telling me that her trophy was way better than my medal, which was an accurate statement, but my 18:46 was also way better than my medal or her trophy!

Winner!

Celebrating with Hibachi

Now, I can really officially retire from 5Ks.