Race the Bar 5K - Race #2

Saturday was the perfect weather for a race. With a 3pm start time, it would be the hottest time of the day. But we had mid 70’s temp and partly cloudy skies. Not too humid either. On Friday, Michael and I ate lunch at Lindley Park Filling Station which just also happened to be the starting point for Saturday’s race. We wanted to preview the course. Well this neighborhood is in the same general area as the Beer Run, so we expected hills. And the preview did not disappoint. It was going to be brutal. After checking out the course, I knew I would probably not meet my goal of finishing under 30 minutes.

Friday evening we got registered at packet pick-up. Oh yeah, Michael decided he wanted to run too! He is still not 100% injury free, but he said he was feeling better and was just tired of waiting to do another race. Was this a good decision? We’ll see.

My new running group started last week. I actually had to miss the first night due to a mother/daughter dinner at my mother’s church. I didn’t miss much. They just did the 1.5mile VO2 Max test run, which I had already done on the treadmill during my fitness assessment. I didn’t want to miss another session even though I had the race on Saturday, I figured with an afternoon start time I would be fine.

I wasn’t sure what was on the plan for Friday night since I missed picking it up on Monday. But we did fartleks (sounds bad I know). We ended up running 3 miles and doing 4 fartleks during the run. Even though we are a group, we run at our own pace. We did our own distance and speed for the fartleks. I’m still not sure I did them correctly, but along the run I would choose landmarks to run to and speed up for the fartlek. Basically it seems similar to intervals on the track. For some reason I didn’t bring my Garmin so I had to go by "feel" for my pace. I did end up running the 3 miles in under 30 minutes, which gave me a little boost of confidence for the race.

We still had some Mother’s Day shopping to finish up on Saturday so we were up and out of the house by 10am! Not bad for us on a Saturday. Have you ever tried Subway for breakfast? We did for the first time and really enjoyed it. I love their flatbread. I got an egg white, bacon, cheese and spinach on flatbread and it was very good! After breakfast and some shopping we went back home to get race ready. I even had time to buy some new running songs on iTunes.

Michael wanted to get there early to find a parking spot since there wasn’t an actual parking lot, just wherever you could find in the neighborhood. So we got there around 2pm and had no trouble parking – we were actually right above the start/finish line. We got our timing chip and wristband for beer, which took all of 2 minutes. Now time to stand and wait. After a few sips of water and two trips to the bathroom, it was finally time for the 8k runners to line up. Actually the 5k was supposed to start at 3:15 after the 8k runners started. While they were lining up, the race officials announced that the course had changed. The 8k runners were going to do a loop of almost 2 miles and come back through the start/finish line and then run the 5k course.

Before the race

Well this was interesting. The good news was it didn’t have the monster hills at the beginning but now I didn’t know what the rest of the course was going to look like. After the majority of the 8k runners came through, we had to quickly start. It was already after 3:30 at this point. On my first mile, I felt good. It was actually more downhill. My first mile was 9:15. Probably a little too fast but hey, I wanted to capitalize on the downhill’s. Mile two was a little hillier. The hill first was a bridge overpass and it wasn’t that bad. The next hill was a turnaround point which was literally up a steep hill. Come on people! The last portion of mile two was through a park and was fairly flat, but this is when the mental game started. I just felt like I was out of gas. I don’t know why. My legs weren’t hurting and my breathing was ok. I just felt like I could not go. I started thinking about how I would let Michael and others down if I didn’t make my goal time. Mile two was 10:10.

Still not too bad. If I really push this last mile I could still finish under 30. I looked at my Garmin at I was at 2.17 miles. Okay, now only one mile to go. I can do this! Then here comes a hill. Then here comes the bridge. After the bridge, it’s downhill…until the next 2 HILLS!! Mental game back on. Capitalize on the downhill’s and just keep running up the hill’s. I knew that if I walked up the hills, I would not meet my goal. Even a slow run up the hills would be faster than walking. I got through the first hill and down. Then I started the last hill and saw Michael. He asked me what my time was. I looked down at my Garmin and didn’t say anything. I was at 28:00. He tried to encourage me by running with me up that last hill and telling me "You got this. You are almost done." I know two times I told him, "I can’t do this" up that last hill. I really meant, I can’t do this in under 30 minutes. Once I hit the downhill I took off. I even passed a few people. Of course, I wasn’t really competing against them, only myself. I looked up at the time clock and saw the big 30. Mile three was 10:40. My official chip time was 30:47.

Beer!!

Wow what a long story to say I didn’t make my goal. But you know what? That’s okay. There will be plenty more chances to meet my goal and I know I will eventually do it. I just have to keep trying and pushing myself further. I’m sure this new running group will also help since it focuses on speed training.

Other good news, Michael finished 4th overall and 1st place in his age group! His time was 20:21. Man, to be that fast. I can't imagine. His medal was an awesome pint glass. Also, I am actually in 3rd place in the series standings for my age group! Even though I haven't placed in either race (4th in this one and 5th in the first one) I still may place in the series just for doing all the races. Is that wrong? It's my only chance to win something! So to any females 35-39 that can run faster than me, please do not enter the next two races!!