I really wanted a redo on my Halloween 5k. I thought I had a better race in me. Two people suggested I run the Free to Breathe 5k at Sandy Creek. And I really considered. But I had plans to visit my sister in Florida that weekend.
WHICH RACE TO DO
I eyed two races in Destin. I didn’t sign up in advance in case something happened and I didn’t go on the trip or didn’t want to race.
One race was closer to their house, but it seemed like a bit of a party. (I think finishers got three beers). The other race was at the American Legion and benefited veterans. Since it was Veterans Day and seemed like a more serious race, I opted for that one.
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| 1. This bib is awesome 2. I was representing Athens in my patriotic tank |
(My race prep was driving on Thursday and not being able to run and being busy with vacation stuff and not running on Friday, and not eating any donuts or fried food.)
The race started at 8 a.m. I left their house at 7 a.m. (and brought my brother). I got there at 7:15 and parked next door. I registered. The price went up to $35 (boo) and they were out of shirts. (oh well). I pinned my bib and did a warmup. Maybe 300 people in this race? (Also the bib had a flag on it. Super cool).
We all gathered in the parking lot, only most people guessed wrong for where to start, so we all had to shift. And the race started.
THE RACE
The race was an out and back, with one turn repeated. So very straight and very flat. The temperature was 60, so perfect for racing. (A little cool during the warm up, but I was warm after running half a mile).
It took me a second to get on 7:15 pace for the race. I tried to hang with a tough looking older guy. I passed him. I kept with my pace and my first mile 7:10, which was perfect.
In mile 2, I passed A LOT OF PEOPLE. I passed a lot of women and girls who were breathing really hard. (Which always makes me more conscious of my breathing. I try for it to be controlled, where I’m working hard but not dying.) Also it was WINDY. (Windy and 60 is preferable to windy and 46.) That second mile was the worst of the wind.
We hit the turn around. I saw one woman WAAAAAAAY ahead of me. There was no catching her. But by the halfway point, I’d passed all the other women and didn’t see another woman ahead of me (coming the opposite way on the out and back.) I really didn’t want a woman to pass me.
I should add that they closed one lane of this road, so there were cars driving down the middle of the road, since they wanted us running with traffic (not in the same lane).
Mile 2: 7:09. Right on pace I was happy with that.
And then mile 3 starts. And I’m counting down how much I still have to run. It hurts. Oddly, it was my arms that were bothering me. They were sore and heavy. (This has never happened to me before). And then it was my lungs (it was hard to breathe). But I told myself I could do this and I ran and ran, and counted my steps down.
1 mile left to go. .8 miles left to go. .5 miles left to go. And so on.
My watch got to 3 miles. And I didn’t see the finish. I didn’t have much left. A guy came up behind me, but didn’t pass me. The kid who I’d run with in mile 2 but passed, passed me. He was like 12, so I was fine with that and didn’t have the speed to catch him.
Finally I did see the finish. And I didn’t have as much of a sprint as I normally do. The clock timer said 22:25 when I crossed. Which is a few seconds faster than my last race. I thought I’d run a better race than that, but that’s 8 seconds faster so I was happy with it.
POST RACE
My brother was actually at the finish. They’d put him to work. All the finishers got dog tags instead of medals, which I thought was pretty cool. He was handing them out.
He had my water at the finish. Yay. I was spent. And I had nothing left at the end, so I went hard and even? But I didn’t know what my last mile was. I hadn’t looked. I heard my Garmin beep but didn’t recall the time. And it took a few minutes for my Garmin and phone to synch so I could see my splits.
7:10
7:09
7:15. I lost 5 seconds on the last mile. That’s not bad!
And the race ended up being 3.15 miles.
My Garmin said 22:11 for 3.1, which I’ll take. And makes more sense given my splits and because I did speed up some at the very end. After 3, I averaged 6:10 to 7 flat pace.
My brother said they didn’t have the timer set correctly when the race started. He said it like 90 seconds before it started and they guessed what the time was. !!! What!?!
“Was I second woman?” was the second thing I asked after asking for my water. He said I was, and I was probably in the top 20 (16th after the results posted). (First place woman ran in the 18s, and apparently wins every race in the area.)
I ran a cool down mile (mid 8s) and still had energy and my legs. And worried that maybe I didn’t go hard enough since an 8:26 mile was easy for my post-race recovery.
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| #merica. Running a Veterans Day race in a patriotic shirt and posing in front of a tank. |
MEDALS, ETC
Post race they had weird food. I didn’t even know there was food until I saw someone with a plate and went inside. There was a roasted red pepper soup, pickles, cookies, cuban sandwiches and Jimmy Johns.
I wanted a banana and a granola bar. My stomach was UPSET. I couldn’t eat soup. I tried the Jimmy Johns, but think it was ham not turkey. I finally found a granola bar an hour later.
I figured I would get a medal, so I’d hang around for the medal ceremony. That took forever. I think they started the ceremony at 10 a.m. Two hours after the race started.
Also this was my first Florida race, so I wasn’t sure how it would be different.
• They took the bottom of my bib at the finish (like they did in high school)
• There was no leaderboard with notecards so I could see place anywhere
• The had some different categories. They had awards for walkers, and I think they had the overall awards, masters (40+), grand masters (50+) and senior grand masters(60+), which I feel is one more category than I’m used to. These winners got cool mugs. (I was sad I didn’t get a mug. They were glass beer mugs with an American flag on them)
I got a medal for winning my age group (nothing for second overall). And slipped out shortly after that.
Ultimately, I am HAPPY with the race.
21:11 or 22:25, whatever. It’s a faster race. A PR.
It was an even race. Mile three was hard, but 25 seconds faster than two weeks ago. I wasn’t dying like I was then. I think I need to train longer so mile 3 isn’t as hard.
I think that might be my last 5k of the year unless we get some really warm weather. I might focus on 10ks, if I have the time. I want to get my 10k time down.
A sub 22 5k will be the goal for 2018.
