Race Report: Another day, another 5K

At the last minute, Rich and I competed in a 5K (3.1 miles) road race last weekend. I say last minute because although we had known about the race for a few months, we really didn't decide to run it until the night before. And the morning of the race, Rich was tired, which I can totally and completely understand, and said, "Do we really want to do this?"

I told him we were doing it. No questions asked.

There was a fun run before the race for kids ages 9 and under. It was .25 miles (once around a track.) We started in the back so we wouldn't get knocked over by the big kids. Even though the girls started last and finished last, they had fun and we didn't drag them around the track like some other parents did with their children. {Insert throat clearing here.}

The girls had so much fun, which is all that matters. But then it came time for the 5K and Allie did not want to sit in the jogging stroller. No, she wanted to run in the "grown-up race." At the last minute, we threw her in there and waited for the horn to mark the start of the race. She recovered as soon as Rich started running. We were also close to the back and because this race was small, there were no chips. So you know what that means. Yes, I lost time passing walkers at the start.

Rich and I had decided to not run together. I was wearing my watch so I set the timer right when I passed over the official start line. I was actually feeling pretty good but I didn't want to start out too fast and lose steam.

When I reached the first mile mark, my watch was at 8:56. The official time called out was 9:16 so I knew that I had lost 20 seconds at the start. I was pretty pleased with myself for running a 9 minute mile and still feeling pretty good.

I reached the second mile mark at just over 18 minutes, my watch. So I had run the second mile in just over 9 minutes and I was still feeling pretty good. That lasted for another half mile or so and then I didn't feel so great.

The last mile is a tough one because it is slightly uphill with a few small hills at the end. I started having bad thoughts like If I run this last mile at a 10 minute mile pace, I'll still have a finish time of less than 30 minutes. I really don't want to run a 12 minute mile pace. I will still be alive but I won't be happy with my time. Stop thinking about it. STOP THINKING.

I almost threw up a few times at the end and I wanted to walk but I didn't. I'm convinced that this is because I wasn't properly hydrated. And I didn't have a decent breakfast. I don't run at my best in the morning and having to scramble to get out of the house to get to the race on time did not help at all.

Official time - 28:46, 9:17 pace

My watch - 28:25

I placed at 30% for my division (females, ages 30-39) and let's just say that I am at the old end of that age range. 70% of the women in my age group finished after me!

After the race, Allie insisted that we had to run another race so we brought the girls back to the track so they could run again. Rich has a video of that and part of the fun run here. Allie does not understand why she couldn't run in the "grown-up race." She made that up too. Grown-up race.

I should mention that Rich finished before me. Pushing the triplet stroller.