Cowboy Hazel

I don't have a whole lot to say about my race today, but it's become a tradition of sorts for me to write up a little report every time I race, so here it goes...

My main goal today was to finally get an official 5K time under 20 minutes. It seems like I've been cursed with this in the past. Everything from huge pacing mistakes to malfunctioning clocks has kept me from hitting this seemingly simple goal. I've run it on a treadmill before, I've finished longer races at the paces required (including a sub-40 10K), but for whatever reason the official 5K just has not cooperated with me.

Today, the 20 minute mark finally fell. (The 19 minute mark did too.) I finished the 3.1 miles in 18:59, a 6:06 min/mile pace, which I was very happy with considering how sore I was when I woke up this morning. My whole body still ached from the 20+ miles yesterday and I wasn't sure how it would react to a race on such a quick turnaround.

The first mile was pretty rough. The course was very crowded and there was a lot of contact. Plus, I was really having trouble getting my muscles to warm up and function properly. I hit the marker at 6:10.

Going into Fort Tyron park, we ran down this huge hill. The whole time I was thinking, Wow, this is going to suck running back up. I was right; it did suck. The hill ripped away what little energy I had left and left me completely on fumes. It made for another slow mile and I hit the mile 2 marker at 12:25.

Strangely, I managed to actually run my fastest mile at the end. It helped that it was mostly downhill, but I think the fact that the crowd was getting less dense and that my muscles were finally warming up played a part as well. The last 1.1 miles took me 6:34, a 5:58 pace.

So, I got the P.R. and I broke the elusive 20 minute barrier. Not bad for being so beat up. Still, I definitely feel like I could do better at this distance with a pair of fresh legs and hope to get a chance sometime later this year. I'd love to drop under six minute miles.

But, today I did what I promised myself I would do – running the race just to have fun and not focusing on the time too much – and I have to feel pretty good about that.