Great Pumpkin Race
I did the Great Pumpkin Fun Run and 5K Race today. This was my second 5K race and it was sort of a goal / see where I am race. Here’s my report. Warning: its marathon-length (haha I’ll never be able to physically do a marathon so I’ll have to stick to marathon length reports). I know its long, but I like to have detailed reports to include in my blog and training journal, and I am prone to write epics. You’re more than welcome to just skim. Thelearnedfoot is short on cardio endurance but long on passion. :^O<br />
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I didn’t sleep very well on Thursday night — I make it a goal to try and sleep well two nights before a race. But, that simply was not going to happen because bar exam results were to be released on Friday morning at 7AM. All day Thursday I was really nervous and my stomach kept angrily gurgling and burning. I think I slept about two hours off and on Thursday night. I signed online at 7:15 am and was promptly instant messaged by my law school best friend. We looked at the results together. Our names were both on THE list. I was really happy. It was so much better because my friend and I BOTH passed. The very best thing is how proud my parents are.<br />
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Anywho, I did manage to sleep ok on Friday night. I woke up around 7:30 and got dressed. It was really cold this morning. I debated what to wear. I settled on racing in my favorite blue and white nike running shorts and a longsleeve white Adidas half zip top. I also tossed my gloves and hat in my bag. I layered a pair of wind pants over top my shorts and put my jacket on, grabbed my bag, and headed out the door. After scraping a thick layer of frost off the car windshield, I was off.<br />
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My driving directions turned out to be pretty good and I arrived at the race with minimal hassle. I walked over to the pavillion and obtained my race number and shirt. The shirt was pretty cool: long-sleeve, black, with a big fat orange pumpkin on the front. I wasn’t happy with my race number: 66. Six happens to be my unlucky number so TWO 6s wasn’t good.<br />
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It was now about 8:30; the race was at nine. What to do for half an hour? Hmm. I ended up heading back to my car because it was so cold. I sat and listened to my ipod for a while, then took off my wind pants and jacket. I debated which shoes to wear. I have a pair of lightweight trainers (NB 901s in that “interesting” neon yellow/green) but I only have 15 miles on them. I decided to just stick with my trusty Wave Riders. I put on my gloves and hat and stepped out of the car. I did a few minutes of very easy running and stretched my hamstrings and calves. Then it was about five minutes before race time so I joined the group of runners lining up.<br />
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My goals for the race were to not injure myself (always important) and to set a PR (my prior best time was 29:25). Since my training pace has been around 9:30 for easy runs and 9:00 for hard runs, I felt I could run a time in the 27s. My ultimate goal is to run sub-25 for a 5K, but I knew I was far from that right now.<br />
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Like in my first 5K, I lined up near the back of the pack, though this time not at the very back behind the walkers. With no fanfare (all I saw was the people in front of me start running!) we were off. It was a beautiful day to run. It was a bit too cold for my liking — I think it was probably in the high 30s and I think I run best at about 50 degrees — but the sun was shining for the first time in almost two weeks and the trees looked really nice decked out in flashy red and glittering gold autumn garlands. I spent some time at the very beginning of the race dodging and weaving in and out from behind slower runners. But eventually I found stride. My only real complaint for the first mile is my legs were really cold and thus felt stiff. Still, I did the first mile in 8:57 — and at just a tad harder than conversational pace. Good. A few minutes later, I saw the lead runners coming back. I picked up my pace a bit and passed a rather friendly look fellow. I said to him, pointing towards the guys coming back, “I wish I was that fast!” and he laughed and agreed. More and more runners were coming back. After running a little longer, I too hit the turn-around point and started back. I passed the second mile in 17:32. My pace was now “comfortably hard.” My legs were awesome and felt fast (I’m an ex-100 meter track runner so I am very fast twitch), but my cardio endurance still hasn’t caught up to them.<br />
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I passed a few people for another half mile or so, but then I started fading a bit and I didn’t pass anyone else (then again no one passed me either). The legs weren’t the problem, as usual, it was running out of air. Obviously I need to keep working on my cardio endurance. Also, my stomach hurt a bit which is somewhat unusual. I made the final turn and approached the finish line. Last time I almost ran over the guy in front of me when he stopped suddenly at the line and I also had people hot on my heels. This time I finished all alone — there was no one really near me which surprised me given the size of the race (it was quite well attended). I’m actually disappointed there was no one directly up ahead because even though I was tired at the end, I would have tried to use my sprinter speed to outkick someone if they had been available! Official results haven’t been released yet, but I think my time was called out as 26:22, which is very respectable and a bit better than I hoped (though of course its still not my magical sub-25!). That’s a three-minute PR in one months time!!!<br />
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I do have to say the out and back course was interesting (my prior race was a loop). For awhile, it was depressing to see all the people coming back who were in front of me. Then again, it was kind of cool to see how many people were actually behind me on MY way back. My guess is I finished somewhere in the middle of the race.<br />
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I was fairly spent right after the race and needed a minute to recover, but I caught my breath quickly and I then jogged for about ten minutes to cool down. I then walked back over to the pavillion and picked up a bottle of water, banana, and a bagel. I ate my bagel and banana, drank some water, and then I left. I didn’t stay for the awards — I’m in the female 20-29 age group and I’m quite positive I didn’t come in the top three — but they had nice looking plaques.<br />
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On the way home, I stopped at Walgreens and picked up a package of M&Ms and a bottle of Coke. I felt good, but not elated. When I got home the mailman was just leaving my house. There was an official looking envelope from the Supreme Court of Ohio (my OFFICIAL bar results yay!!!) and a couple letters from my law school and other local bar associations welcoming me to the legal profession. I ate lunch (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) but then my stomach had had enough. It cramped up and has been upset (just icky feeling, nothing major) since. I know I didn’t drink enough water the past two days and was a little dehydrated. It also must partly be due to the stress of the bar and the race. I’m hoping rehydrating will help. I also feel tired and maybe like I am getting a cold, so I’m going to eat some strawberries after dinner for the vitamin C.<br />
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Thanks for reading and I hope it was entertaining. :)<br />