April | 2015 | Fit Girl. Happy Girl.

I’m not one to bury the lead so I’m happy to say I set a new 5K PR by running 22:37 at the St. Luke’s 5K!

This was the first time I’ve run sub-23:00 and I broke my previous PR by about 30 seconds. I am so incredibly ecstatic to have finally broken through what seemed like a barrier for the past couple races and I’m excited to see what’s to come.

The race itself was really solid. I ran the half marathon last year and didn’t have such a good time but the 5K was perfect. In hilly Pennsylvania, the St. Luke’s 5K is known to be a fast course. I knew it started with a pretty significant downhill, followed by rollers on the out-and-back course, and finished with a slight (kind of steep but short) uphill before dumping runners onto a track where you run about 300 meters into the finish line.

I got to the race with not a whole lot of time to spare but began my warm-up immediately with a few loops around the block near the finish line. I only managed to do about three strides before heading over to the starting area but I wanted to make sure I’d be able to line up closer to the front so I felt that was enough.

I might have been a bit ambitious with my self-seeding but it’s always tough to gauge, especially when there’s a significant amount of younger kids running the race. Regardless, I decided it would be better to get closer to the front than to get jammed up in the middle.

Instead of getting nervous before this race I decided to take a Shalane Flanagan approach to my racing and just go balls to the wall from the beginning. I figured if I blew up later on, at least I tried. My mantra for this one was the same as Shalane’s—f–k shit up.

When the starting gun went off, I did just that and raced down the downhill letting my legs take me at whatever speed they felt was right. Turns out racing a downhill at the very start of a race is hard. With all the excitement and adrenaline pumping I felt almost as if my legs were getting ahead of me but I tried to keep up as much as possible. Once the road flattened out a bit, I reined it in and settled into a steady pace.

I decided again not to use my watch during this race. I feel like this helps me focus on how I’m really feeling instead of worrying about pace. I don’t know if I’ll keep doing this every 5K I race but I really like the feeling of tuning into my body and listening to what it’s telling me instead of what my GPS says.

I kept a steady pace until the turnaround when I decided to try to pick it up a bit. I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to pick off a few runners on some of the rollers. Hills are usually not my specialty but I think I’ve gotten strong enough where I can really charge up them.

By the time I passed the 2-mile marker on the out-and-back the half marathoners had begun their race and were coming towards the 5Kers. This was a bit tough because it really squeezed the 5K into almost a single file lane, which made any passing or surges hard. Soon enough though the course took us up the final hill and onto the track. At this point, Adam—who was volunteering in the medical tent—was waiting at the top with the rest of the St. Luke’s medical volunteers and I started hearing them cheer my name which gave me a boost of energy for the final trek around the track. I tried for one last surge and as I was coming up on the finish I saw the race clock and knew I was going to break 23 minutes.

I crossed the line at 22:35 (although the official results list me at 22:37) and was thrilled with my time! I feel like breaking 23 minutes has remained elusive to me in the past two 5Ks I’ve done. It always felt in reach but either conditions weren’t great or something was off and it didn’t happen but today it felt easy. Yes, I said easy. I know I had more left in the tank and I know I probably could have run even faster. I still need to practice on getting uncomfortable in the 5K. I think I’m still a little hesitant to reach that point but I know once I do, I’ll be able to really see some improvement.

I won—yes, outright won—a local 5K. WHUT. Here’s the story.

As many of you know, I’ve been training for 5Ks lately. It’s been a humbling and rewarding experience and so far, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve done more speed workouts than ever before and my average pace per run has dropped significantly.

The thing I like about training for 5Ks is I’ve been training for a season as opposed to training for a goal race. I actually really like this because it takes the pressure off of one day and one race.

I raced a 5K a few weeks ago (and completely neglected to post about it–sorry!) and was pretty disappointed I didn’t automatically snag a new PR. I came close, but didn’t get it. It was a cold, windy day and I was pretty nervous–like marathon nervous–to start. I ran even splits and my legs felt great but my breathing was way off. I ended up placing third in my age group, which was great, but I wanted more.

Two weeks ago I ran my second 5K race of the season. The weather wasn’t ideal, steady winds at 16-20mph with gusts of 25+ mph. (Wind is my nemesis when it comes to running weather.) Right off the bat I knew it probably wasn’t going to be a PR race. I decided to run sans watch because I knew if I kept checking my pace I’d just get disappointed.

The race started at a local community center which was surrounded by a park. I did my 15-minute warmup trhough the park before heading over to the start line. I wasn’t as nervous as my first 5K of the season, I think because the pressure was off.

I also finally had the balls to line up relatively close to the start and when the gun went off I just went with the leading pack of guys.

It only took about a quarter of a mile for me to realize I was the only woman around. The lead pack went out and got ahead (with Adam leading the group!) and then it was me and two guys. Seriously, no women to be found, anywhere. I kind of assumed there must have been a woman in the lead group but I really couldn’t recall seeing one. I didn’t want to worry about it too much though so I kept focusing on my pace and try to build a gap between myself and the guy behind me.

The wind was pretty brutal though at some points. It wasn’t a cold wind but it definitely increased my level of effort a lot and made it hard to breathe at points. The course was also pretty confusing though. It was through neighborhoods by the community center but there were tons of turns (which slowed me down) and most of the turns were lacking volunteers telling the runners which way to go. Since I’ve never been so far in front of a race, I’ve never not known where I should be going. Usually you just follow the pack. But not this time. There were at least two points in the race where myself and the two guys running near me totally guessed which way to go. We ended up running the right course which was good but the added stress didn’t help.

Since I didn’t wear my watch, I don’t know what my splits were so I’m not going to do a mile-by-mile breakdown of the race. But, before I knew it I was headed back toward the community center and the cops holding traffic yelled out at me “First female! First female!” That was pretty surreal!! I came into the parking lot where the race finished and Adam was yelling for me (he had already cruised into first place!). I ran around the parking lot and into the finish and asked him, “Was I the first girl?!” And I WAS! It was so incredible.

Now, if I’m being honest, the race was not that competitive but I don’t care. I still was the first woman to cross the finish line and I am damn proud of it!