Lightweight Eats

After running our 5.6 mile timed run on Friday, and clocking a decently fast pace by my standards, I started poking around the internet to see how much faster I'd gotten.

According to the Runner's World Training Calculator, 5.6 miles in 40 minutes translated to 21:30 for a 5K--much faster than my last 5K race, which took just under 24 minutes. By a stroke of luck, google calendar reminded me minutes later of the upcoming fourth Sunday run around our local lake.

Dan and I raced the 5K last summer. It's a small, casual race, with a $5 entry fee for non-members, and a 5k, 10k and 15k option. Most of the fastest runners do the 10 and 15k distances, which means I'm relatively competitive with the 5K field. Awesome!

I registered last night and jogged the 2 miles to the start line this morning. I got to the course super early, and spent a fair amount of time warming up there, as well.

Bib pinned on, we were off just minutes after 9AM. I tried to position myself towards the front of the pack, knowing my times could put me in the top 20 finishers. There were a lot of kids in front, though, who sprang off the blocks and the died about a mile in. I definitely got caught up in their frenzy, though, and ran the first mile in 6:45--too fast.

I began to reel it back in the second mile, until I got passed by a woman--up until that point, I was the first place woman. My competitive spirit kicked in and I tried to hold on to her, finishing mile two in 6:50. That push definitely caught up to me in the third mile. I slowed down a lot, finished the race at around 6:54/mile average.

Overall, it was great to get out and race. I need to get better at pacing myself, but I was still happy with the huge PR. According to the training calculator, my marathon time should be around 3:25--a Boston qualifying time! Entries just closed for 2013, but maybe I can run a qualifying time for 2014?

Unofficial time: 21:27 (6:54/mile)