October 5k Race Report

October is the time of 5k races in my town.  Seems like there are quite a few every weekend.  There are only a few that I look forward to every fall (when I am not injured like the last two years...)  This past Saturday was the Scarecrow 5k, which is one of my favorites because of its flat course and I signed up early this year.  In fact I signed up before the wedding AND I signed up under my married name ;)

Although Brian had not been running or training, he begged me to sign him up too and so I did.  He came along as we met up with all my running group friends and did a easy warm up on the crisp morning.  We have been having a streak of clear sunny days and I have been loving it and Saturday was no exception!  Soon after the warm up the race started and we were off.  The best part about home town races is that you get to start up close and there is no weaving or dodging slower runners. 

I enjoyed the first mile when the pace actually felt good.  There was a slight downhill and I coasted through the first mile.  I was ahead of my planned pace (planned = 6:40, actual = 6:32) and was feeling good so I thought that I would be able to at least hold this pace or negative split the race but how naive I was.

At the 1.5 mile mark we hit a dead turn around which really slowed down my momentum.  That was my least favorite part of the course.  All through the second mile I was feeling the honeymoon - I could tell that I had lost a bit of speed due to all my relaxing in the past few weeks.  My second mile was definitely not a negative split.

Going into the third mile I tried to speed up.  But it didn't work and with most 5ks my legs were starting to hurt.  I hoped I could hold onto the end and soon enough the finish line was in sight.  I knew I had a PR but I really didn't care at that point because I just wanted to finish and stop running.

Mile 1 - 6:32
Mile 2 - 6:37
Mile 3 - 6:46
Last 0.1 - 6:08 pace
Finish time: 20:40 (6:40 pace)

Once again someone managed to catch my death face at the end of a race - really need to work on that.

Walking through the finishers shoot I did not feel good.  I pulled over to the side and dry heaved.  This is the first time since my college track days when I have almost been sick and just like always it was not fun.  Thankfully the feeling passed quickly as I downed water. 

I am happy with this race and my new PR by 18 seconds! Finally breaking 21 minutes in the 5k has been a goal I had pursued for years and often thought it might not be attainable. 

Brian finished a few minutes after me (25:02) and he actually PR'd too (by +30 seconds)!  I was really proud of him and he was pretty happy with the race too! He thinks he ran so well because of his new shoes which also happen to be his favorite color!  I am not so sure about that - I think it is because he ran with one of my running group buddies and had a good pacer so he didn't go out too fast.


Another 5k race in the books - and even though it hurts really bad, this race distance is still one of my favorites!