beautiful sunrise
We've been suffering through some crud for the last couple weeks, but on Friday I started feeling worse. Saturday I woke up and thought very hard about canceling. But I already had a babysitter lined up and I had committed to pick up and drive my friends A and C to the race as well. Plus, I'd been looking forward to this race for a year. I ran this race a year ago and it's a flat, fast course, which is very unusual for around here. I was coming off an illness last year too, so while I did well back then, it wasn't as well as I knew I could do.
After a nice hot shower I felt a bit better so I decided to go for it and hope for the best. The temps were in the mid-20s, which I knew was either going to clear out my lungs or make me really sick. Add our 70* temps from Thursday into the mix and I was pretty sure I knew which way things were going to go. <spoiler: my lungs aren't too bad, but I now have a middle ear infection that ruptured my ear drum Sunday night>
Last year I was sick for three months straight leading up to this race, but this year it's only been dragging on for a couple weeks. As a result, I did actually train for this race. I've been increasing my mileage, and adding some hill work and speed work into the mix.
This year it was sunny and cold, which made for perfect running conditions as long as you had sunglasses or a hat on.
While running I felt good. My legs didn't feel tired and heavy, and my body didn't feel crummy. I've experienced more than enough of both, so it was pleasantly surprising to be able to run hard and feel pretty good at the same time. And I did run hard. C and I ran together and we pushed ourselves harder than if we'd been running by ourselves. The last half mile I pulled ahead in an effort to chase down my PR. I pushed myself and I didn't feel like dying, which is a frequent feeling when I push myself in a race.
My current 5k PR is from January 2013, and I missed it by 62 seconds. But I beat my next fastest 5k (from October 2011) by 1 minute and 25 seconds. Go me! (I've got a post in the works that talks about my fastest races)
As I mentioned, this out-and-back course is flat and fast. It's a very slight incline on the way out, and a slight decline on the way back. As you can see from my times below, I managed negative splits (my later miles were faster than the earlier ones), which isn't easy, especially since my pace was a lot faster than I've run lately. The hill work C and I have been doing together really paid off in this race.
C, me, and A
1st mile: 10:32
2nd mile: 10:22
3rd mile: 9:15
I thought about running the 10k, but I wanted the chance at a 5k PR. I ran the fastest 5k I've run in more than 4 years, so I'm glad I chose the 5k. I'm also glad I didn't go back to bed Saturday morning. I had a great race, notwithstanding the ear infection and ruptured ear drum :)
such a great course- we all had a blast!
Weekly Mileage
Monday: 3.29 miles walked on the treadmill
Wednesday: 3.25 miles run outside with C
Thursday: 1.87 miles hiked with kiddos
Saturday: 4.40 miles run and walked
total mileage: 12.81 miles
44th race towards my 40 by 40 goal
1st race of 2017
hike #8 towards #52hikechallenge
89.61 miles towards #365milechallenge
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