Today's race was a good one. I did what I set out to do and that was to run my first official 5k in 4 years in under 23 minutes. I ran it in 22:54. I did what I knew I would do.. I went out too fast. About a quarter mile in to the race, I felt winded but almost like I was going slowly. I'll attribute that to the head wind we faced in the beginning of the first loop. I looked at my watch and my pace was 6:46. I knew that was just a hair off my hopes of maintaining a 7:20 pace throughout. I'll say it again.. I do not know how to pace myself for short distances.
Two weeks ago, I went out with the hopes of maintaining a pace of 7:10. I figured that would be an aggressive goal coming out of an injury, but not impossible given how well the spinning classes and the elliptical were working for me during my running downtime. That was where I tanked after 2 miles and began to think I was much further behind than I thought. So I switched my goal. I would try to keep my pace around 7:20 for this race and try to accept that I needed to get back to the track and also hit the hills again. I thought, "As long as I can finish under the 23 minute mark, I will not panic and I will feel like I haven't lost a whole lot." And so I did.
Things I did not do.... I did not run thankfully. I ran uncomfortably. I did not run happy. I was too busy being irritated that I could not quite get close enough to the second finishing female (the first finishing female was none other than my BFF, Sarah. And if I couldn't have first, then I can't think of who I would want to get it more.). I thought of all the reasons why I didn't like 5k racing. It feels so physically awful to push like that. 3.1 miles seems like nothing to someone who loves distance. And it isn't if you are running it not at 5k race pace!
Things I DID do... told myself several times that I was fine and I could hang in there despite how uncomfortable it was. Cussed that I didn't bring music. Mentally flipped off the sweet volunteer in my way offering me a water cup when I didn't want one. Thought about the girls I came with who were simultaneously pushing through a lot of discomfort to reach the finish. Girls, I can't tell ya how much that kept me running as hard as I could. No matter what differing paces we were all running, we were all doing the same thing... running hard and running uncomfortably.
And finally, I came home, hopped on the computer, plugged in my stats for Runner's World race predictor calculator and based on my 5k time, came up with a marathon predicted finish time of 3:39.
For now, I'll take it.
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