Race Report: Spinx Runfest 5K

This was my biggest race as in number of participants and I knew I would be more nervous than usual. I didn’t sleep well the night before with anticipation for this event. My husband went with me (I always like when he goes although I know it’s probably boring for him) and we got there a little after 8am where I met up with the other iRUNners.

At 8:50am we lined up and there were a lot of runners, around 800 I think. I decided to start near the back for two reasons, so I could avoid getting caught up in running a faster pace than I had planned and second, I figured if I starting passing other runners, it would give me confidence and I was right. I have never had a 10:46 mile that felt so “easy”. I seriously felt like I ran only a half mile. Then the course went downhill where I knew I had to take it easy to prepare me for the uphill climb to the finish. I did walk some although I probably didn’t need to and realized racewalking was actually causing me to waste more energy than it was saving.

By the time I got to 2.5 miles, I started to get super nervous about entering the stadium. My legs began to feel like jello by the time I entered but the moment I did, I felt fine and even got this extra surge to run faster and ended up passing about 5 people in the last tenth mile. Talk about being nervous for nothing, it was the best part of the entire race! Needless to say if I actually gave it 100%, I would of had another PR easy but it doesn’t matter though, I wanted to run this race for fun and enjoy the atmosphere. Even with the cool misty conditions, the weather was actually quite perfect for running and was comfortable in shorts and my iRUN tee.

My gun time was 35:28 (11:25 pace)  and my chip time was 34:49 (11:13 pace), still my 2nd fastest 5K and I’m happy with that considering I didn’t give it everything I had. Next up on my calendar is probably an 8K on November 21. It will be my first 8K. I’m still undecided on whether I will actually run this race. It will depend on how I’m feeling and the weather and will decide 36 hours before the race.

Race Report: iRecycle 5K

I wanted to use this race as a trial for the Spinx 5K since it consisted of both a half marathon and 5K that shared parts of the course just like the Spinx race will. The pre-race ritual for me starts 24 hours prior with no junk food and no sodas and spaghetti for dinner. I woke up at 6:15am the morning of the race and immediately went outside to get an idea of what I should wear. To my surprise, it felt very warm, more like August and not October! It was 68° with 93%  humidity which made it feel more like 74° so I knew it was shorts and a tank top.

We (my husband went with me) arrived around 7:15am and I had an hour before my race started. I got my bid number and timing chip and went back to the car since it was starting to rain (it stopped 5 mins later). At 7:45am, I started stretching and warming up, at 8:00am, the half marathoners took off and at 8:10am, they had the 5Kers line up. Learning from previous races I decided to start more towards the front this time so I wasn’t zig zagging through slower runners. At 8:15am, we were off. The first mile felt great, my split was 9:46. I started the second mile and that’s when the half marathoners started to join us for about 1/2 mile. I was feeling really good until we approached a somewhat steep hill at 1.6 miles. I tried to keep running up it but as my pace got slower and slower and I just found myself walking up the hill. Once I got to the top, I could feel it in my legs and I found it really hard to start running again. I tried to zone out and think about something other than how I was feeling. I concentrated on my breathing but I was struggling to get it back under control. My goal for mile 3 was to stay under a 12 min pace which is exactly what I did. Once I hit the final stretch and saw the clock at 33:42, I told myself I can do this, I can finish under 34 mins and ran as fast as I possibly could towards the finish line. I wasn’t sure if I made it under 34 but it still felt great to finish around 34 minutes after finishing more than 37 minutes in my previous five 5Ks.

I got home and it wasn’t probably 4 hours later, I got the email with the link to the results. 33:57! I did it, I finished under 34 minutes. I knew I could of done better if it wasn’t so humid. A few times during the race, I felt really hot and started to get dizzy and had to slow down and even walk some to allow my body to cool down. Maybe just maybe the weather will be perfect for the Spinx 5K on October 31. I hope so.