Angels on the Bay 5k Recap

 Yesterday morning I went down to the track, and ran some 200's, 100's and really, I had no plan. I just wanted to run faster (than I had been doing in these last few weeks) in preparation for the race this morning. I was hitting 7:30 and 8:00's - but it was not sustainable. I did almost 4 miles, and I left not feeling very impressed.  I wondered how it would effect the race today.

I was very nervous this morning. More nervous that I can remember getting ready to run a race. I got there in plenty of time - probably too early. I did a slow 3/4 mile around the track, and mulled around waiting for the race to start. I had Runmeter call out for negative splits, much like I did on my last 5k in April before my injury. I had been running and racing the previous fall and winter, and I thought I was in great shape, even though my heart rate was in the low 170's when I raced. I came in at 25:31, a PR for that distance.

When the race started, I realized that my headset had not connected to the phone. I was hearing Runmeter instead through the phone speaker. I didn't want to annoy anyone, so I lowered the volume. I barely heard what was being announced as the race progressed. There was one clock at mile 1, and I got there in 8:45. That made me happy - but I knew and felt that I had gone out too fast, and I knew that I would not be able to go any faster, or even hold on to that pace. It was an out and back course, with rolling inclines/declines. Past the turn around, the only water station sat - and I picked up a cup and slowed down to drink. About an eighth of a mile after that, I walked for about 30 seconds to bring my heart rate down from 175 to 165.
It got warm very quickly, it was 69 degrees when I left the house, and it was overcast to the east - controlling the rising sun's assault on us. By the time the race was 15 minutes in, the weather cleared and although there was a good amount of wind, it was a warm wind.

I came in at 9:01/mile - 2nd in my age group of 17 women. The 1st place winner (the same age as me) ran 7:30/mile. We posed together for a pic someone took.
There were 390+ runners all together, but I'm not clear on how many ran the 5k, and how many did the 10k. We started out together.

What bummed me out was that I really felt lousy. I so enjoyed running without the nastiness of breathing hard and feeling like I had no control. 

There was a 94 year old runner who did the 5k in 59:58! How wonderful! If I play my cards right, and consider running comfortably instead of knocking myself for a loop - maybe I'll still be running when I'm that old!

The back of his shirt said "Senior Feet" !


I signed up for CH. I kinda knew I would, but right now, at this very moment in time, I'm wondering how I will run it. Trying to stay at a healthy, aerobic heart rate, or try to PR it. I guess we'll see how I'll feel like training for it.

This week I start a part time job as a TA for a university out east every Monday. Combined with my full time job, that'll be 13 hrs on Mondays with travel. Nothing like making my life just a little bit more challenging!

Runmeter Data