good weekend!
Yesterday I went out to meet the gang at Highbanks. It was a smallish group: Bridget, Junior, Mike, Bob and I. I ran with Mike and Bob. We ‘took it slow’ since Bob just had back surgery in April and the six mile loop was to be his longest since the surgery. I was glad, since I’d been out the night before and didn’t sleep that well. As I headed into the final section, I looked at my watch and saw 46:xx. Generally we run the loop in about 51, so I decided to pick it up. I came in at 49:55, pretty good for me. I had considered doing another half loop, but none of us were that motivated once we stopped. I spent the rest of the day relaxing: went on the boat, had a four hour (!) nap.
This morning I got up and ready for my first 5K run in a looooong time. I knew my PR was a 7:05 pace, but I figured I would be happy with a 7:30 average. The run was an out and back, with a pretty small crowd. I lined up near the front of the women and quickly settled into third place for women overall. I hit the first mile marker at 6:59, oops! The leader passed me on his way back when I was about 9 minutes in. I stopped to walk a few paces at the turnaround, where they were handing out water. I know a walk break shouldn’t be necessary in a 5K, but for whatever reason it seems to for me. The fourth place girl passed me, but as soon as I started again I passed her easily. Ahead, I saw the second place girl catching up with the girl in first place. I then pulled up to be in second place myself. I was surprised to pass the mile 2 marker with 6:39 on my watch! The girl in first dropped her headband or something, I picked it up and carried it the last mile. For a moment I considered trying to put on the jets to catch up with her but I figured that would wear me out. I chugged along for the last mile, although I did have to stop to walk for a small time (ugh, something to get past!) As I neared the finish, I knew I wouldn’t catch the girl in first, but I was content with second. I stopped my watch with an overall time of 21:53 (the official results say 21:55). I was content with that, but for some reason my recollection of my past 5K times was off and I had in my mind that this really wasn’t a great time for me.
I finished the race, gave the first place girl her headband and told her I’d thought about trying to catch her during the race, but figured I’d just wait til the end to give it back to her. She told me I could have caught her (she ended up finishing only 8 seconds before me). As we chatted, someone asked to take our photo, so who knows where that will show up!
I grabbed an apple (I’ve decided I really like apples after races) and headed home. A few hours later I was thinking about the average pace, and realized that no… I think I just PRed.
Uh, yeah. Sure did. Even with the official time, I came in with a 7:04 pace. Not bad for no official short race training! I’ll admit I was a little nervous heading out to the race, but I think that’s just a sign that I should think about doing some more short races this year!
