Believe

Several months ago I used a quote in one of my blog posts about my training.

Be mindful of the deceptive paralysis that can take hold when you become intimidated by your increasingly faster paces.

If I had allowed myself to freak out over the pace I was running as I started my 5k on April 22, there's no way I would've ended up averaging 7:12 pace.

Okay, so it wasn't technically a 5K, because I am notorious for picking races that come up short. It's absolutely frustrating as I really have no idea what to call my PR. Most of my fastest "5Ks" have been on short courses. And some of them I didn't even wear my watch so I actually have no clue just how short they were. Going into yesterday's race I was calling my 5K PR 23:30 because that's how fast I ran a portion of my April 8 10K race and the fastest official 5K I have.

But I digress. I could've continued running 7 minute pace for 58 seconds to make it a full 5K. Maybe I should have after I collected my medal.

Back to my point.

In looking at last year's results, I saw that the winning female ran it in 23:27, so I had it in the back of my mind that perhaps I'd go for the win at this race. I forgot that half the race is run in a vineyard, weaving through several rows of vines. Probably not ideal for trying to win or to PR. But still, it depended on who showed up, but I knew based on this race's history that heck, maybe I could win it? It gave me something to shoot for. I also was hoping for a true legitimate 5K PR on a full 3.1 mile course.

Unfortunately, because apparently a full 3.1 mile course is just too much to ask for when I run 5K races, they had to change the course at the last minute. Heavy rain the night before caused the vines to become way too muddy, so they weren't going to let us run through them. They instead had the brilliant idea to have us do two loops of the road. Sounds ok, sure, but unfortunately it was pretty much a cluster.

On the positive side, I came in 3rd place female, 10th overall, and 1st in my age group. Freaking awesome run, that's for sure!

Before the race

Why does that dude have his hands in his pockets?

My plan was to stay as close to any female that was in front of me and hope that either I could overtake them or they'd bonk (I'm a horrible person). The leader got out in front quickly and was running exceptionally well. She also looked 16. There was also a lady right in front of me, probably about 10-15 seconds ahead, that I basically paced off of. I was running hard, and it was not at all comfortable, and my heartrate very quickly got up to 150. But I didn't want her to get too far ahead. So there I sat in 3rd place for that first loop. The first place girl looked to be getting at least a minute ahead of me.

My first mile came in at 7:16. I have never ever ever in my life ran a mile that fast to start a 5K race. It didn't feel like a 7:16. It felt like a 7:40. I did my absolute best to not completely freak myself out over this. Hence the importance of that quote above.

I'm so serious. This is the first loop.

As we came in to finish the first loop, we intersected with the rest of the runners and walkers (there were over 500 people so in the 10 minutes or so it took us to run that first loop they had barely gotten everyone through the start). It was an absolute shit show because nobody was telling us which side of the cones to run on, for the back of the pack to stay to one side, or anything. We were completely winging it. And even though there were about a dozen runners ahead of me flying past them, the majority of the walkers still took up the entire width of the road and were not moving an inch. The leaders were literally weaving through these participants. I actually got run off the road around a turn at one point because someone stepped directly in front of me. Once we got back into the neighborhood roads there was a bit more room to navigate but it was still a mess. Nobody was moving to one side. I had to yell "on your left" multiple times and hoped that these folks would understand that the runners on their second loop were coming through and we all needed to work together to make this a successful race.

In the meantime, the leading female seemed to possibly be slowing down, but the second place girl wasn't slowing down at all and I was still 10-15 seconds behind her. She was freaking killing it.

Mile 2 came in at 7:19, a little bit of a slowdown but not too bad considering the obstacle course.

The pain of the second loop

At this point I did realize the course would be short. We did the turnaround for loop 2 at just under 1.5 miles. I wasn't horribly bummed because I knew that although it wouldn't be an official 5K, I was still running my fastest 3-ish mile race I've ever run and it was a real kick to see if I could hold on for dear life or not. Chasing the second place girl was definitely pushing me to keep pace. She was not giving me an inch!

As we came in on the very last turn with about a 10th of a mile to go, and I continued to weave through people and run on the grass shoulder of the road (seriously, people still weren't moving to the right), I gave it everything I had to finish strong and maintain 3rd place female.

I crossed the line of my 2.96 mile race in 21:17 officially. 7:12 pace. My last mile was skirting sub-7 and I think I may have been able to dip below it had I been able to run for another .14 miles. But regardless I was pretty dang happy that I was 40 seconds per mile faster in this race than in my 10K from 2 weeks ago. Honestly didn't even think I'd run much faster than 7:30 pace. Didn't even think I could do that.

I may have been freaking out over my miles coming in so much faster than I thought they would, but somehow I was able to maintain it and even get faster during that last mile.

My ugly finish line face makes me laugh

So glad that is over

Ain't gonna lie, however, running zone 4 and 5 for all but 2 minutes of that run HURT LIKE A BITCH. Average heartrate was 160, just about the same as my 10K race on April 8. My Garmin was super happy with me because it added two points to my VO2 max, which had gone down a few points since my marathon. It's the little things that make me happy.

I love that they gave out bottles of wine to the age group winners

Greg took first in his half marathon (ahem...11.3 mile) race

April ended up being a really lazy month except for these races. I was in the gym strength training more consistently, but I was also sick for several days. I only ran 85 miles in April, my lowest mileage in a very long time. But in May, I have been able to run much more consistently. I should be well over 100 miles by the time June rolls around. This will set me up better when I start official marathon training in July. I'll be ready to up the intensity and volume safely. A part of me feels really guilty about this "laziness" but the smarter side of me knows that a break was good for me. It will help me be completely ready for the next marathon cycle. Going into it with these new PRs and newfound confidence in my speed is priceless to me. A year ago I couldn't even come close to running that pace.

However, I'm a little worried about a pain I've been having intermittently behind my right knee. I've never had pain there before, and I've been foam rolling, stretching, and doing trigger point above and below it in the hopes of finding the culprit, but no luck for the long term. Yesterday it didn't bug me, but today it did, so it's a little weird. I have an appointment with a doctor on Friday. I'm not messing with it and want it worked out.

I really am so ready to start official training!

Fix the Distance

I have a big frustration mounting and I'm trying to articulate my thoughts on it.

There's a disturbing trend in the racing world that is really hindering my desire to get back into triathlon and it's causing me to shy away from considering many running races.

RACE DISTANCE INACCURACY

Whatever happened to race distance accuracy? When I think about all the races I've run that have been inaccurate on the expected distance, it really surprises me. And it's mostly mistakes that cause the race to be short.

Frankly, if you post that your race is going to be a certain distance, I expect that race to be that distance. If you say it's a 5K, and it's really 2.9 miles but you charged me $35 to run this supposed 5K? Not cool. If you charge $120 for a half marathon but it ends up being 11.3 miles? That is REALLY not cool. If you put on an Ironman that can cost $800 to register for and the distance isn't 140.6 but more like 136? I can't even begin to describe the level of frustration that I feel on that one.

Yet this has been reality in countless races in the last few months.

With regards to a certified marathon, this is especially a huge deal. You simply CAN'T make a mistake on the distance of the race. In my case, it caused my Boston Qualifying time to be nullified and I had to try again. Considering I spent 8 months working towards that goal, making a mistake of a quarter mile was a big freaking deal.

Last weekend, several teammates and I ran in a half marathon and 5k race. My husband competed in the half marathon while I did the 5K. My goal was to PR this race and I knew I was totally capable of it. I have no idea what my 5K PR truly is because my three "fastest" times are on short courses. So while my results show me as having run a 22:40 and a 23:09, I know those were more around 3 miles and not 3.1 miles so I can't technically claim them. My fastest accurate 5K on record is 24:00, but I ran a 5K portion of my fastest 10K in 23:30. So basically it was time to erase all of that and bust out a true 5K PR on a 3.1 mile course.

Didn't happen. This race was at a winery and 1.6 miles of it was supposed to be in the vines. There was rain in the forecast for the 2 weeks leading up to the race, so the race organizers knew that there might be an issue with a the vines being too muddy to run. This isn't their first year....they know you can't run the vines if it's too muddy. They did not have a back up plan in place to get people a full 3.1 mile race. Instead, they had us double the road portion, which was only about 1.5 miles. In looking at the course and the road closures they had secured, having a backup plan to give runners a full 3.1 miles would not have been an issue. They chose to have us run the road portion twice, and don't even get me started on how much of a mess that ended up being. All those details will be in my race recap. I ended up running 7:12 pace for that ~3 mile race, which would have been a new PR by far. Yet, once again, my fastest 5K time is on another inaccurate course.

This, however, pales in comparison to the disaster of the half marathon course. Again, the last part of the course would have gone through the vines, but they had to cut that part out. There was no back up plan in place, even though having them run an out-and-back on the already closed roads would have been easy for them to do. They charged $120 for this half marathon. That is a whole lot of money for only running 11.3 miles. Three of my team members would have run huge PR's on this course, but they don't count. And they paid $120 to run this. Thankfully the pre- and post-race festivities were a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed ourselves. But still...

*sigh*

I'm frustrated. This frustration has been building all year, and these last two weeks have really brought it out in full force. All those thoughts have been mulling around in my mind and it was time to get it out.

Now let's talk about the disaster of Ironman Texas. They announced right before the race that for "athlete safety" the bike course would only be 110 miles instead of 112. This is the third year in a row the bike course has been short, plus there's all sorts of chatter that the run course is about 300 meters short. There was a world record time set on Saturday, but it doesn't count although it's possible had the course actually been 140.6 it still may have been a world record time. Three years in a row that they've messed up the distance of the course. This is not only a race that costs several hundred dollars just to register for, but it's also the North American championship. Plus, don't even get me started on the massive drafting that was allowed during the entire bike portion. Truly shameful.

I talked about doing Ironman Texas if I do a full iron distance triathlon. Now, that's off the table. I can't support a race that cares so little about integrity. An Ironman is 140.6 miles. Period. Just like a marathon is 26.2 miles. These athletes deserve so much better after pouring out their blood, sweat, tears, hearts....everything! And a substantial amount of money.

Fix the damn distance of your race courses.

So I'm frustrated. I was toying with returning to triathlon, for maybe a couple sprint races, maybe longer. I've missed it.

I'm disillusioned, however. I feel like so many of these races are so focused on profit that they miss those little (or not so little) details that the athletes find very important. When you're disillusioned, you're not motivated. When you're not motivated, training feels like a chore. When you show up to a race wondering what the actual distance might end up being, that's not exactly a good pre-race mindset.

I was very picky about the longer distance running races that I chose coming into this next marathon season. They are big city marathons and half marathons and have impeccable reputations, so anything that may go wrong would be a huge anomaly. They don't have a track record for screwing things up (hello, Ironman Texas) and the courses are tried and true and accurate and (hopefully) not changing. I'm doing a local 5K in June, but signed up before they published the course. Luckily it was really inexpensive so I'm not going to worry so much about accuracy. There's another local 5K that is put on monthly that I know is a perfectly measured course, and that one is always an option to run to get my legitimate PR.

I feel better getting it off my chest.