Saturday, June 25, 2016

"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.

Following the lead cyclist in
Finishing it up
Done
Pretty pumped about this pet sitting gift certificate!
Quite fitting for the Duck Fest
Garmin splits

No comments:

Post a Comment