pre-rapture 5k
Last year, Alex and I did the Save the Manatee 5k out at Metro Beach Metropark. Alex was convinced he'd registered for it, but his packet was nowhere to be found. The race director was super apologetic and gave him a t-shirt and a race number. He PR'd the race and got a medal! We got home to find out that he had in fact, never registered. He felt awful and sent in a large donation and a letter apologizing. She appreciated the donation so much that she sent him a letter saying we were registered as #1 and #2 this year. I was SUPER excited to have race number 2!
The manatee is an ugly creature:
The race was set to start at 9am, and we showed up around 8:30. I had a moment if anxiety that they might not have packets for us, as if the race director had forgotten about us, but she did not. We even found her before the race and chatted a little. We had just enough time to get things together, hit the bathroom and head to the wrong start line. You know, the start line that was used last year. It was pretty easy to figure out around 8:59, and the race started a few minutes late, so we were fine. After the gun we crossed the start line together, Alex waved and took off. He ended up running the 5k in about 26 minutes, 3 min slower than last year's PR, but still enough for 3rd place in his age group (there were 5 people in it) and he got another medal!
The first mile I headed out at a comfortable pace, thinking I'd do my 4:1 run/walk ratio. But, it's hard to walk 4 minutes into a 5k when pretty much everybody else is still running. I settled on 9:15 running and 0:45 walking. So, my first walk break came right around the first mile marker. Mile 1: 10:26/mile, avg HR 164 BPM, max 173 BPM.
The second mile, I focused on keeping the same pace or picking it up a bit. It seems that around 15-20 minutes into every run is when I cross the "warmed up" threshold which is usually a little uncomfortable. People around me were walking more. Not sure who was walking on a strategy and who had planned poorly. There were definitely a few people who had run all out for the first 1.5 miles, not really knowing how far 3.1 miles is, or what they were capable of, I guess. Either way, I was passing people! I took the next walk break at 19:30, right around the mile 2 marker. Mile 2: 9:28/mile, avg HR 176, max 185.
After the mile 2 marker I thought, "Ok, now run faster." And then, "Man, those two pretty fast miles were tiring." The first 2 miles curve around the park, go out by the water, and then head back to the finish (there is a 2 mile walk). The 3rd mile is an out and back that's a little boring. I decided that I would keep it going to the turn around and then maybe walk 30 to 45 seconds when I got there. My 3rd walk break would have come at 29:15, but since I was shooting for finishing as close to 30 min as I could it seemed silly to walk the last 45 seconds of the race. I ended up being able to convince myself I was "almost there" and actually didn't walk the rest of the way. I've gotten to know my playlist pretty well, and "Til The World Ends" comes on around 28 minutes. Just after the turnaround I skipped ahead so I could listen to it while I pushed the last 1/2 mile or so to the finish - this seemed to be a good strategy. The right side of my back and my right oblique were starting to complain at this point, but I just powered through. I saw Alex as I was coming down the home stretch and made a point to smile/wave at him. I've had so many miserable race finishes where I look unhappy, grimace, don't see him, or burst into tears after the finish. I wanted to present myself as a happy human being for once. Afterwards he said I looked thin and fast, so I guess it worked. I felt like I was going to puke though, and here's why. Mile 3.1: 10:38 (9:40/mile), avg HR 186, max 199. I haven't seen something that high in quite some time.
Total time: 30:32, pace 9:51/mile.
Somewhere, I'd secretly hoped I'd break my PR of 30:06. I think with a little more rest beforehand, a little bit more speedwork, and another 10 lbs lost, I totally could. The thing to note here is that I actually felt pretty comfortable for the first 2.5 miles, only at the end when I was pushing hard did I feel awful. And since that was on purpose, I was in a good mood at the end of the race!
Today was actually a really nice day since we followed the race up with a sunny trip to eastern market, some homemade lunch, a nap, a movie, homemade dinner and ice cream on the back porch. I'm pretty much done with the "The world ends today" jokes, and am set on just enjoying that my life is awesome right now.
The manatee is an ugly creature:
The race was set to start at 9am, and we showed up around 8:30. I had a moment if anxiety that they might not have packets for us, as if the race director had forgotten about us, but she did not. We even found her before the race and chatted a little. We had just enough time to get things together, hit the bathroom and head to the wrong start line. You know, the start line that was used last year. It was pretty easy to figure out around 8:59, and the race started a few minutes late, so we were fine. After the gun we crossed the start line together, Alex waved and took off. He ended up running the 5k in about 26 minutes, 3 min slower than last year's PR, but still enough for 3rd place in his age group (there were 5 people in it) and he got another medal!
The first mile I headed out at a comfortable pace, thinking I'd do my 4:1 run/walk ratio. But, it's hard to walk 4 minutes into a 5k when pretty much everybody else is still running. I settled on 9:15 running and 0:45 walking. So, my first walk break came right around the first mile marker. Mile 1: 10:26/mile, avg HR 164 BPM, max 173 BPM.
The second mile, I focused on keeping the same pace or picking it up a bit. It seems that around 15-20 minutes into every run is when I cross the "warmed up" threshold which is usually a little uncomfortable. People around me were walking more. Not sure who was walking on a strategy and who had planned poorly. There were definitely a few people who had run all out for the first 1.5 miles, not really knowing how far 3.1 miles is, or what they were capable of, I guess. Either way, I was passing people! I took the next walk break at 19:30, right around the mile 2 marker. Mile 2: 9:28/mile, avg HR 176, max 185.
After the mile 2 marker I thought, "Ok, now run faster." And then, "Man, those two pretty fast miles were tiring." The first 2 miles curve around the park, go out by the water, and then head back to the finish (there is a 2 mile walk). The 3rd mile is an out and back that's a little boring. I decided that I would keep it going to the turn around and then maybe walk 30 to 45 seconds when I got there. My 3rd walk break would have come at 29:15, but since I was shooting for finishing as close to 30 min as I could it seemed silly to walk the last 45 seconds of the race. I ended up being able to convince myself I was "almost there" and actually didn't walk the rest of the way. I've gotten to know my playlist pretty well, and "Til The World Ends" comes on around 28 minutes. Just after the turnaround I skipped ahead so I could listen to it while I pushed the last 1/2 mile or so to the finish - this seemed to be a good strategy. The right side of my back and my right oblique were starting to complain at this point, but I just powered through. I saw Alex as I was coming down the home stretch and made a point to smile/wave at him. I've had so many miserable race finishes where I look unhappy, grimace, don't see him, or burst into tears after the finish. I wanted to present myself as a happy human being for once. Afterwards he said I looked thin and fast, so I guess it worked. I felt like I was going to puke though, and here's why. Mile 3.1: 10:38 (9:40/mile), avg HR 186, max 199. I haven't seen something that high in quite some time.
Total time: 30:32, pace 9:51/mile.
Somewhere, I'd secretly hoped I'd break my PR of 30:06. I think with a little more rest beforehand, a little bit more speedwork, and another 10 lbs lost, I totally could. The thing to note here is that I actually felt pretty comfortable for the first 2.5 miles, only at the end when I was pushing hard did I feel awful. And since that was on purpose, I was in a good mood at the end of the race!
Today was actually a really nice day since we followed the race up with a sunny trip to eastern market, some homemade lunch, a nap, a movie, homemade dinner and ice cream on the back porch. I'm pretty much done with the "The world ends today" jokes, and am set on just enjoying that my life is awesome right now.