Shamrock 5K Race Report

Now with fewer pictures!

The day (for me, at least) started out great. I’d had my pre-race nachos & 1 beer Saturday evening, changed all the clocks, and set two alarms (unprecedented, but I was worried about oversleeping with the time change).

I fell asleep pretty quickly, and when my alarm went off at 6:30 am, I woke & right away & got ready. I’d laid everything out the night before (hellloooooo, OCD!), so it took me about 15 minutes to get ready.

I was meeting Sarah at 7:45 am to walk down to the start line (warm-up mile!), so I left home at 7. It does not take 45 minutes to get to the meeting spot. I did stop for coffee (and for some reason, decided I needed a venti), and then hung out & read in my car until we were to meet.  I geared up (i.e. grabbed my fuel belt, so I’d have a way to carry my phone) & waited outside.

Soon, I had a call from her telling me to go on ahead & save myself!

So, I did. I walked the mile to the start line & got there just in time to see the waves upon waves of 8K runners start. After they finally were all out of the way, I looked for my neighbor (who was running the 15K) and her son (who was doing the 5K), and also Sarah (who’d made it to the start line).

Eventually, everyone was found, and we got in line, along with 11,000 other people, for the 5K.

2011 Shamrock 5K

I will never, ever do this 5K again. I don’t mind a bit of crowd, but I do hate 11,000 people – especially the 9,000 or so that happened to be in my way.

I had a lot of anger in this race. There were walkers in the way (even though there was a specific walker start AFTER the runner start). There were people who had no race etiquette (no, it’s not okay for five people to walk abreast in the middle of the street, unless you’ve actually started with the walkers), there were dumb-ass girls weaving in & out of the traffic cones making sound effects, and then getting snotty when people (i.e. me) told them they were being obnoxious.

I threw a couple of elbows (and was karmically rewarded by elbow bruises) and a LOT of less-than-genteel language.

I did have to take a 15 second walk break towards the end of the 2nd mile. My back had little back spasms for about a mile. I’ve never had that before during a race, so that was kind of obnoxious.

I did not hit my time goal of under 30 minutes, which was a complete bummer to me. I really, really wanted an under 30 minute 5K. In fact, this 5K was even slower than my LAST come-back 5K (Run Like Hell, October 2008) after my knee-hab.

I hit the lap button when someone yelled Mile 1 & I saw the sign. It wasn’t until immediately after that I realized that it was Mile 1 for one of the other distances, and not ours.  I hit the lap button again when I saw our real mile marker.

Mile 1: 10:48

Not what I was hoping for at all!  My first miles are usually pretty speedy before I slow down & find my pace.

Mile 2: 12:51

TERRIBLE!  That’s slower than my trail pace. This did have the long uphill AND the 15 second walk break, but still. Almost 13 minutes? Not cool.

Mile 3: 8:14 (although a bit short on this one – Leo reads .84 miles @ 9:49 pace)

Now – that’s more like it. Of course, this was downhill, and there were no walk breaks.  This should’ve been the entire race, not just the last mile.

Mile 3.1: 0:48 (9:12 pace)

Overall: 32:45 – average pace 10:33.

Disappointing. And now, I’m pretty sure I need another 5K soon so that I can redeem myself.

Also, I should try not to get sick the week before a race & miss 3 out of 4 training runs.

*****

TRAIL RUN REPORT!

Friday, I did 3.76 miles on the trails, which was awesome!  My splits there were not as good as my race splits, but it was a wee bit hillier!

Mile 1: 10:54
Mile 2: 12:13 (up, up, up!)
Mile 3: 12:13 (oooh – consistent!)
Mile 3.5: 5:42 (11:24 pace)
Extra bits: 3:58 (15:15 pace – it’s pretty steep)
(I hit the lap button when I got to the first 1/4 mile marker, and then when I passed it on my way back. The additional distance added up to .26 miles)

Overall – 3.76 miles in 45:03 (11:58 pace).  I’ll take that for a steep trail run + a new 2011 distance record!

I am now in the first week of my 8 week half marathon training schedule. I am going to be ramping up the miles quickly and safely. My secondary goal is to get to half marathon shape & be able to run the whole thing (and to not get a PW), but my primary goal is to get through this training without injuring myself further & having another crappy running year!

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