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| Photo by Cheryl Young |
Even the weather for the 5K was forecast to be miserable, so I told my coach I was going to run it as a workout. He pushed back on that, and told me I should race it all out. He said it would be a good opportunity to run hard and test my fitness. I don't really think I can test my fitness with a dew point of 72, but I agreed that I would run it as a race and give it my all.
As for my bike injury and hematoma, that's mostly cleared up. I no longer have pain with running. The bump is still there in my groin, but it has shrunk down significantly, and at this rate should be gone in another week. I saw the last of the bruise yesterday, too.
As for my bike injury and hematoma, that's mostly cleared up. I no longer have pain with running. The bump is still there in my groin, but it has shrunk down significantly, and at this rate should be gone in another week. I saw the last of the bruise yesterday, too.
Before the Race
Greg and I were a little late leaving our house (6:15) so we were more rushed than we would have liked, but it all worked out okay. I picked up our bibs while he used the bathroom. I ran into my friend Amber, who I had met at the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans half marathon just over a year ago. One of the reasons I like to do this race, despite the crappy weather, is that a lot of people come out for it. It's a good way to see friends and socialize. It's a fairly competitive race, too, as many local runners use it as a tune up for fall goal races.
Mile 2
This mile has a lot of turns and I knew to expect them. We ran around a large school and it was mentally exhausting. Even though this mile wasn't as hilly as the first mile, I was running out of steam already! I only glanced at the Garmin a few times and I wasn't surprised to see how slowly I
was running. I didn't have any pep and I was exhausted. I was not feeling this race at all.
Shortly into this mile, I passed a high school cross country guy. A number of them had lined up at the start wearing the same jersey, so it was obvious that their team had come out for the event. As a 40-year old woman, it did feel good to pass a high school cross-country male! That perked me up mentally.
After that, I needed something to motivate me to maintain my effort, so I reminded myself that I wanted to be the first Master's Female. I didn't know if they had an official Master's award, but if they did, I wanted it to be mine. And if not, I wanted to win my age group. There was a turnaround which allowed me to see who was ahead of me. I knew 3 out of 6 of them, and they were all younger. And it's really hard to tell how old someone is when they are in running clothes, especially when you are trying to race at full effort. I just assumed they were all younger than me so that I would still be motivated to push hard. My Garmin beeped at the end of the mile in 7:06. Not pretty, but I was still maintaining my placement.
Mile 3
I knew this mile would be downhill, and I needed that badly. If you execute this race properly, your last mile should be your fastest. Probably by at least 10 seconds. This was not the case for me. I tried my best to simply hang on to the effort level, even though I felt like I was running through molasses and I was dead tired.
The only thing I cared about was making sure no women passed me, and I was confident that they wouldn't if I simply maintained the effort. My time for this mile was 6:55. Not what I would have expected for a downhill mile! Keep in mind, I have run faster miles than this at the end of half marathons.
The last 0.18
As I turned onto the final stretch, which is uphill, I saw that there was a woman about 8-10 seconds behind me. That motivated me to start my final kick early. I didn't want her trying to pass me. It worked and I was surprisingly able to run a pace of 6:32 up that hill. Amazing what I can do when I'm threatened by competition!
My final time was 22:05 according to my Garmin, and 22:08 according to the official results. I know that the distance of my Garmin will usually not match the official results, but the official time should be the same or faster. I always start my Garmin before I cross the start line mat, and I stop it after I cross the finish line. So I don't know how they added an extra 3 seconds, unless they didn't get my net time, just my gun time. This has happened a few times in the past, and even happened at the last 5K I ran through this same race series. But last time, I wasn't even listed in the results at all so I had to talk to them. Since this isn't a PR for me, I didn't care enough to talk to them about it, but it's annoying.
After the race
Once I regained my ability to speak, I congratulated Amber who had finished over a minute ahead of me! I then cooled down and waited for Greg to finish his 20K. I figured I would run him in the last 0.2 miles, but when I tried, he was too fast for me, and I couldn't keep up. Turns out, his last mile was faster than my last mile! He's in excellent shape right now and does much better in the heat than I do.
Shortly after Greg finished, they started handing out the 5K awards and I won first place in my age group, which was the main goal. I do not think I would have placed in my age group at all if I had run the 20K, so I made the right choice.
Final thoughts and takeaways
I kind of bonked today, and I'm okay with that. I think it was a combination of going out too fast, not being in 5K shape (had to take 9 days off after the bike accident), and obviously the heat/humidity. I ran 4 miles at an average pace of 7:05 just over a week ago in cooler weather and on a flatter route.
Prior to this race, I had assumed that my max heart rate was around 190. This was based on running with my new Garmin + HR monitor for the past two months, and seeing it get up to 187 at the Firecracker 5K in July. Well, today it got up to 196! And it averaged 186 for the last 0.18. This definitely shows that I ran the race to my fullest effort level and I was not slacking.
I ran this race over 40 seconds faster in 2017, but I was in really excellent 5K shape back then, and it wasn't quite as warm that year. It's not a helpful or relevant comparison, so I'll stop there.
I was the 7th overall female and it was a competitive field. The Leesburg 5K is a popular local race and the first two females ran 18:xx.
I'll be running two more 5Ks before I settle into marathon training, and I am excited to see how those go. Hopefully, much cooler!
Greg and I put our bibs on and I drank my Generation UCAN. I also had an Energice ice pop, which would have been better to have after my warm up and immediately before the race, but the logistics of going back to the car made that impractical.
I started my warm up and Greg headed for the start line of the 20K. The 20K started at 7:30 and the 5K at 7:48. Weird timing, but I liked the precision! I had run the 5K back in 2017, and I knew there was a coffee shop on my warm-up route where I could go to the bathroom. However, the coffee shop was no longer in business, so I found a gas station instead. I like to go to the bathroom 15-20 minutes before I race just to make sure everything is "out" that is coming out.
On my way back, I was able to see the 20K runners, including Greg, shortly after they had started. Given how hot I already was on my warm up, I was relived that I was not among them. Finally, 7:48 arrived and it was time to get going.
Mile 1
I did not have a goal time for this race. I thought I would be happy to go sub-22:00 in these conditions, but I didn't really have a goal in mind. I knew that the first two miles were mostly uphill and the last mile was downhill, so I made sure not to go out too hard in the beginning.
I knew that Amber was in much better shape than I was, and yet I found myself near her for the first half mile. I looked down at my Garmin and I wasn't going all that fast, and I felt fine, so I just maintained that effort.
Except-- it was definitely way too fast. I clocked in at 6:52, and even though that seems conservative for me, it was not given that there was 40+ feet of gain and it was very warm and humid.
Mile 1
I did not have a goal time for this race. I thought I would be happy to go sub-22:00 in these conditions, but I didn't really have a goal in mind. I knew that the first two miles were mostly uphill and the last mile was downhill, so I made sure not to go out too hard in the beginning.
I knew that Amber was in much better shape than I was, and yet I found myself near her for the first half mile. I looked down at my Garmin and I wasn't going all that fast, and I felt fine, so I just maintained that effort.
Except-- it was definitely way too fast. I clocked in at 6:52, and even though that seems conservative for me, it was not given that there was 40+ feet of gain and it was very warm and humid.
Mile 2
This mile has a lot of turns and I knew to expect them. We ran around a large school and it was mentally exhausting. Even though this mile wasn't as hilly as the first mile, I was running out of steam already! I only glanced at the Garmin a few times and I wasn't surprised to see how slowly I
Shortly into this mile, I passed a high school cross country guy. A number of them had lined up at the start wearing the same jersey, so it was obvious that their team had come out for the event. As a 40-year old woman, it did feel good to pass a high school cross-country male! That perked me up mentally.
After that, I needed something to motivate me to maintain my effort, so I reminded myself that I wanted to be the first Master's Female. I didn't know if they had an official Master's award, but if they did, I wanted it to be mine. And if not, I wanted to win my age group. There was a turnaround which allowed me to see who was ahead of me. I knew 3 out of 6 of them, and they were all younger. And it's really hard to tell how old someone is when they are in running clothes, especially when you are trying to race at full effort. I just assumed they were all younger than me so that I would still be motivated to push hard. My Garmin beeped at the end of the mile in 7:06. Not pretty, but I was still maintaining my placement.
Mile 3
I knew this mile would be downhill, and I needed that badly. If you execute this race properly, your last mile should be your fastest. Probably by at least 10 seconds. This was not the case for me. I tried my best to simply hang on to the effort level, even though I felt like I was running through molasses and I was dead tired.
The only thing I cared about was making sure no women passed me, and I was confident that they wouldn't if I simply maintained the effort. My time for this mile was 6:55. Not what I would have expected for a downhill mile! Keep in mind, I have run faster miles than this at the end of half marathons.
The last 0.18
As I turned onto the final stretch, which is uphill, I saw that there was a woman about 8-10 seconds behind me. That motivated me to start my final kick early. I didn't want her trying to pass me. It worked and I was surprisingly able to run a pace of 6:32 up that hill. Amazing what I can do when I'm threatened by competition!
My final time was 22:05 according to my Garmin, and 22:08 according to the official results. I know that the distance of my Garmin will usually not match the official results, but the official time should be the same or faster. I always start my Garmin before I cross the start line mat, and I stop it after I cross the finish line. So I don't know how they added an extra 3 seconds, unless they didn't get my net time, just my gun time. This has happened a few times in the past, and even happened at the last 5K I ran through this same race series. But last time, I wasn't even listed in the results at all so I had to talk to them. Since this isn't a PR for me, I didn't care enough to talk to them about it, but it's annoying.
After the race
Once I regained my ability to speak, I congratulated Amber who had finished over a minute ahead of me! I then cooled down and waited for Greg to finish his 20K. I figured I would run him in the last 0.2 miles, but when I tried, he was too fast for me, and I couldn't keep up. Turns out, his last mile was faster than my last mile! He's in excellent shape right now and does much better in the heat than I do.
Shortly after Greg finished, they started handing out the 5K awards and I won first place in my age group, which was the main goal. I do not think I would have placed in my age group at all if I had run the 20K, so I made the right choice.
Final thoughts and takeaways
I kind of bonked today, and I'm okay with that. I think it was a combination of going out too fast, not being in 5K shape (had to take 9 days off after the bike accident), and obviously the heat/humidity. I ran 4 miles at an average pace of 7:05 just over a week ago in cooler weather and on a flatter route.
I ran this race over 40 seconds faster in 2017, but I was in really excellent 5K shape back then, and it wasn't quite as warm that year. It's not a helpful or relevant comparison, so I'll stop there.
I was the 7th overall female and it was a competitive field. The Leesburg 5K is a popular local race and the first two females ran 18:xx.
I'll be running two more 5Ks before I settle into marathon training, and I am excited to see how those go. Hopefully, much cooler!
An August 5k - brutal! Glad you had a strong kick saved for when you needed it. Good job and good place.
ReplyDeleteDon't see it as a "bonk"...I think you just ran a decent 5k race in warm and humid conditions to best you could do at your current state of training and post "mega-bruise" incident on Vay-K overseas. When I see the pics of you in race you always got a smile so must mean you doing well! Not clear if you manually lap the splits to the mile markers on course or using auto-lap. Best to manually lap splits in all races. You ran and placed well for the conditions...success!
ReplyDeleteDewpoint of 72, now that's nasty running weather but the more important thing is that the bicycle accident seems to be over and in the past and you're back to running which is awesome!! In a week or two, everything should click again because you're not that out of shape!! What fall marathon are you planning or is that a secret still?? Oh you're such an elite athlete with the can't tell you that yet haha... :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Elizabeth, on your great race! The Leesburg 20K is one of my favorite races, but I didn't sign up for it or the 5K once I saw the weather forecast.
ReplyDelete