Race #155
5k #53
2018 Race #16
2018 5k #5
Jingle Jingle 5k #4
Unlike previous editions of this race, this race took place on Christmas Eve, on a Monday. This made it quite easy to fit into the trip although I would have come down early had the race taken place on Saturday morning.
I did not have much of a goal for this race. I have not been training for short distances in any way, shape or form. I have noticed, however, that since moving the new hill training that I get in by default with my new route has helped increase my speed. My coach gave me a goal of 23:45 which in my head felt rather slow so I decided to just to run as fast as I could maintain.
Unfortunately, I do not have accurate splits for this race. When we first arrived, I waited in line to pick up my bib (with Mom and Ellis) until my watch found satellites. Both the line and my GPS search took much longer than I expected but it finally connected and I took off for a 25 minute warm up. I ended up cutting that down to 20 minutes so that I could ensure enough time to get my bib pinned on and for one quick pit stop.
With just enough time to spare, I lined up a few rows back from the start and exactly on time took off.
Right away I noticed that my watch was not giving out accurate splits. I know what a 9:xx pace feels like. I was not running that slowly. Throughout the entire race, my watch got hung up on paces in the 9:xx range. It also ended up showing a much shorter distance of 2.65. I have no doubt that something malfunctioned on my watch rather than the race being half a mile short.
I felt fine throughout the first mile, which remarkably enough, my watch gave me an accurate split for, 7:40. (My watch indicated a mile right when I passed the race mile marker.)
Things started to feel difficult after that first mile. I kept telling myself that 5ks hurt and that I needed to push it.
I think that in the last two miles my pace dipped from the first mile but I have no way of knowing. My Garmin stats say that I ran perfectly paced (as if on a treadmill) 9:11-15 miles from the start of the race on.
After mile 2, my watch measured off .13 so it must have lost satellite connection somewhere in there. Everything about the pace felt hard but not exceptionally so. I could feel it and I could also feel the negative thoughts. I started battling them by telling myself that after the fourth song I would start counting. (I have this weird counting thing that I do to occupy my mind and take up distance.) Also, after I finished my counting, I would then think about maybe walking.
By the time I got to that point, I knew we were close, a benefit to having run this race before. I was genuinely ready to start walking when we approached the final turn. I knew that I could not start walking now. If I had not been so close at that point, I know I would have walked. Instead, I pushed towards the finish line as fast as I possibly could.
I looked around for Mom and Ellis but did not see them at first. I wondered if they were simply further up and mixed in the crowd.
Final time: 23:06, not too shabby
I started walking and rounded the corner after the finish line. When I looked up, there were Mom and Ellis! They had missed me at the finish. Ellis phone randomly completely died even though it was charged so they walked back to the car to get Mom’s.
Mom felt terrible so I asked her to go ahead and get pictures as I reenacted the finish.
I love this race and maybe one of these days I will be able to race it to the full extent of my capability and make this a PR race.
Only one more race of 2018 remaining!