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!