Hot Chocolate 5K - Race Recap

Needing a good 5K time to put together a training schedule that I hope to use to break two hours in a half marathon in 2012 I decided to jump into one of the last local 5K's of the season - the Hot Chocolate Race. I went into the race skeptical that I would PR. I haven't been training for a 5K, I haven't set foot on a track in nearly two months.  But the day was cool and the course was pretty flat so I was hopeful.

As usual, I dithered a bit over what to wear. I decided on shorts and a long sleeved shirt - the temperature was 52 degrees, but it was very windy.  On the way up to the race it started sprinkling.  Swell. I sat in my car as long as I could before I needed to jump out to use the bathroom.  Then I tucked in a doorway shivering, looking at most of the race participants in tights, gloves and jackets. Usually I overdress!!!!

There were approximately 800 participants for both a 5K and a 5 mile run. We all lined up together and I ran into a couple of people I knew.  Soon it was time to go -I plugged in my iPod and off we went.  My goal was to keep my pace between 8:20-8:30 for as long as I possibly could. 

It was an out and back course - on the way out there was a wicked head wind.  At one point I almost lost my hat.  I was moving along alright, running down the trail along the river.  I noticed that I would back my pace off a little bit from time to time and was reminded that I don't do a great job of running in a place of discomfort.  I feel like I often back off and sell myself short rather than push myself through some discomfort.  I would say to myself, "don't think, just go" and push my pace back up, but I definitely need to work on that some more.  

A little bit past the one mile marker we started to see the leaders doubling back on the course. I felt good knowing the turnaround was coming and that the wind would soon be at my back.  At the turn around I said, "it's all downhill from here, don't think, just go." Another woman approximately my age and I were running near each other - passing each other several times.  She pulled ahead of me and I tried to keep her ponytail in my reach.  Coming into the final turn before the finish line I felt pretty confident that I would have a PR.  I was running as fast as I could, but still had gas in the tank. (Darn it, does that mean I could have gone faster?)  I crossed the finish line at 26:06 by my watch.

Official results:

Official time - 26:10 (whoops)

19/366 women

37/479 overall

AAAANNNNDDDD...

2/61 women in my age group!!  That's right, I placed in my age group.  

I signed up for this race on a bit of a whim and then almost immediately wondered why I was doing it. It's been a busy weekend, John got home in the wee hours last night and was helping Meghan this morning. The kids went to church with my parents.  Driving up to the race I wondered if I was just being ridiculous for doing this - arranging for care for the kids, driving a half an hour to run 3 miles - less than I normally run.  But I tell you, I may begin to hit the smaller 5K circuit because the PR and placing in my age group totally made it worth it in hindsight!  That and the race chum is awesome - a really nice fleece jacket in a pretty heathered purple.