This morning I ran the Somerville Jingle Bell Run 5K. I put it on the calendar a while back just to have something fun to run this winter. I tend to be a total chicken about speed, so my goal for this race was to go out hard enough to risk blowing up.
Some context:
- The fastest I've ever run a mile is 7:58.
- My 5K PR is 27:40, or about 8:55 pace
- I did a ten mile long run yesterday
- The course was much hillier than I expected (all relative, of course--I'm used to pancake flat)
I jogged the two miles to the start because my training plan originally had me running six today (I pushed the extra mile to yesterday's long run). It was really cold this morning, so I definitely appreciated the warm up. Most people were dressed up in awesome costumes, except for me because I'm lame.
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| Blurry AND not very festive |
Let's compare last week's 5K with this week's, shall we?
Today Last Week
Mile 1: 8:23 9:14
Mile 2: 9:12 9:05
Mile 3: 9:46 9:08
Total: 28:52 28:55
Ouch. I actually saw pace numbers beginning with a 7 early on in the race! I had an average pace of 8:30 through the first half, and then the wheels came off. I had to walk up a few hills, including the monster at the end, and my legs still complained plenty about that! In the final stretch, I started to feel nauseated, like I always do at the end of 5Ks I run hard. To add insult to injury, I saw my watch hit 3.1 just as I passed the 3 mile marker. There may or may not have been some mental cursing at that point.
After the race, I looked around for my running group friends for a few minutes before giving up and going into Starbucks to get hot tea for my two mile walk home. Of course, as soon as I walked into Starbucks, there they were! They both had good-but-not-great races, also falling victim to those darn hills.
Overall, it was a really fun race, and I'm glad I pushed myself at the start. Plus, we got these super cool medal/bottle openers.
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| What a lovely medal! |
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| But wait, there's more! |
And the race shirt was pretty cool, too. Not a tech shirt, but I like the color!
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| Apologies for the backwards mirror picture -- my roommate is out of town |
Anyone else do a fun holiday race this weekend?
I also did Somerville - and my Garmin said 3.17 when I finished (I also had ~3.1 miles at the 3-mile marker). Either way, it was still a PR. I run in Somerville all the time (and do most of the route all the time) so the hills weren't that unknown to me - though I wasn't expecting the last one!
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