Sunday, December 2, 2012

Race for the Hungry Holiday 5K Recap

Yesterday's race was amazing and I am so, so happy that I was able to do it and that Wifey decided to join me for this one. I look forward to doing this event for many years to come, especially since it's right in our backyard!

The Night Before

The night before the race was different than any other before this.  We were supposed to attend a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, but due to crazy work schedules and Murphy's Law we were unable to make it out the door in time.  But it gave me some extra time to be able to prep for the morning.  I checked the weather and it looked like we were going to have about the same as last weekend's run - 41 degrees.  Not too bad, so I anticipated wearing pretty much the same gear as last weekend, and I felt pretty good about that.  I also had a chance to pick up an arm band for my schnazzy new iPhone so that I didn't have to keep it in the pouch on my water bottle.

One of the things weighing heavy on me this evening was my severe lack of sleep brought on by the boy.  For the past few weeks he refuses to sleep for more than about a half hour at a time, and when he wakes he is crying inconsolably for about the same amount of time.  As the days have gone by it seems as though he is sleeping less and less, and therefore I am sleeping less and less so I was worried about getting enough sleep before race day. However, I felt great as far as fuel & water goes and my body felt strong and ready to go (except for the exhaustion of no sleep).

Getting Started

It wasn't the best night of sleep, but I have had much worse in this past week.  So I was slow to wake but when I did I felt relatively OK.  No headaches like I have had for days and it wasn't a struggle to keep my eyes open so I was optimistic that my cup of coffee would be enough to put the pep back in my step.  I knew what I had to eat, I knew what to avoid, and I knew what to pack for a snack for afterwards.  However, I started to worry about whether or not I would be dressed properly.  Even though it was the same temperature as last Saturday, there was no sun!  I went outside & was freezing!  So I grabbed an additional shirt leayer & headed out the door.

When we picked up our packets before the race, I was very excited to see that I was given #35.  This is my sister's (MFC) magic number so I felt like she was there with me for this race.  I usually feel that anyway because a lot of my running gear was given to me by her, and I am always sure to be wearing the necklace she made me.  But I took today's number as a good omen.

One of the things they were stressing about this race was to look at the map because apparently the course had changed from prior years.  Of course, my recurrent worry that I will be completely lost and not know where to go surfaced.  Will the course be marked?  Will the roads be blocked?  What if I fall so far behind the pack that I can't figure out where to go?  Of course these were all ridiculous ideas...they had police officers blocking off the roads and volunteers of all kinds directing us where to turn.

As we were pinning on our race bibs & getting ourselves ready I started shivering - I was SOOO cold!!  I decided to go ahead & put on the extra layer because I was just too cold.  Of course right on target was my pre-race bathroom break.  I am finding that no matter how short the drive to the race, no matter how many times I go, minutes before start time I find I need to use the bathroom.  We found some portables and I was good to go.

Go Time!

We made our way to the start line and were pretty far back from the front of the pack.  I knew that this would affect my race time since they weren't using any kind of tracking chip, but I planned on using the MapMyRun (MMR) app as well and figured that might be a little more accurate.  My goal for this race was to beat my PR of 30:05.  Of course I was also hoping to come in under 30:00, but I would have been just as satisfied with 30:04.

The gun went off and the clock started!  It took a while for us to get moving but I couldn't see the clock as we went past it, and I started the MMR clock as my feet went over the start line.  As we made our way out of the park we ran past Santa & the fire department, and various volunteers decked out in Christmas gear while the PA pumped out some favorite Christmas tunes.  This was so awesome, I was so happy to be doing this!!

I took off pretty fast, which I am finding I tend to do.  I kept up my fast pace for a little while and tapered off to my comfort zone a little after we left the park.  Unfortunately, I lost Wifey right off the bat but I knew I would see her again before the finish line.  At about the 0.75 mark there was a turnaround and we could see the runners behind us, so I made sure I was looking for Wifey.  I didn't know how far behind me she was so I had no idea when I would see her.

I was having a hard time finding a pace partner - someone to help keep my speed up without overdoing it.  It seemed that everyone was either way too fast or was OK for a while and then went too slow.  And then after we hit the turnaround there was a small bottleneck effect as we went over a foot bridge that only allowed for two side-by-side.  This frustrated me because I was stuck behind a few people I would have preferred to pass, but it motivated me to speed up a bit after we were off the bridge.  And as soon as my feet left the bridge I saw Wifey!!  She was doing great & wasn't very far behind me at all!!  I was so happy for her!  Feeling re-energized, I kicked up the speed again and neared the 1 mile mark.

In my last race I hit 1 mile at about 9:30, so I was hoping to see that on the clock or less.  I was a bit frustrated when I saw 9:45, especially since I felt like I was moving so much faster!  But I decided not to let it get to me, that it was only 0:15 more than last time & it definitely took more than 0:15 to cross the starting line.  Time to brush it off & hunker down for the second mile, which is usually my absolute worst mile.

I loved seeing the volunteers cheering us on & directing us through this course!  Most of them were donning some gay Christmas apparel, complete with reindeer antlers or Santa hats - there is something fantastic about running outside in the cold while prepping for the holidays.  I think I'm in love with it!  Another fun sight was the many people running with their dogs!  I kept pace for a while with one man who was running with his cream colored pitbull.  Such a beautiful & happy (and FAST!) dog!  I fell behind them for a little while when I lost some steam coming up against some hills.  And to call them "hills" seems a bit ridiculous.  They were slight inclines.  But when you're running head-on into the wind and you're not used to it, an incline can seem like a hill.  I had to dig in a little for these, and it's here that I started to question my second layer as I started to sweat.  I definitely made the right decision because I never became overheated and everything was fine.

Interesting things I saw in this second mile:  1. A male runner went down on the side of the road.  I didn't see it happen and I'm not sure what happened, but when I passed him he was face-down on the ground clutching his face.  Emergency workers were already with him so I knew he was being taken care of and I could push on without worrying too much for his safety.  I hope he's OK and didn't sustain anything severe.  2. We ran past what I like to call Burlington's town nuisance - a flattened skunk in the middle of the road!  This made me chuckle quite a bit and think of Wifey - I couldn't wait to hear her reaction to this too!!  Let me know if you are not familiar with our skunk troubles, I will gladly fill you in!

I finally crossed mile 2 at 19:45, which means that I ran the second mile in 10:00.  If I could keep it up for the 3rd mile I had a good chance at beating 30:05!  I did my best to keep my speed up and finally found a good pace partner - his name was Paul and he just got into running 5K's over the summer as well.  I struggled to keep up with him but I knew I could if I pushed it.  I was starting to get tired and he was just what I needed to keep going. 

I saw the clock coming up at mile 3 but it took a while before I could read it.  When it finally came into focus I was extremely excited that it read 28:59!!  I could beat both my PR and 30:00!!  I consistently run the last 0.1 mile in under 1:00, and that's without trying to push too hard.  I let out a little screech of excitement, apologized to Paul and took off ahead of him.  I have no idea how fast I ran, but I have never run that fast before on the road!!  I was so happy!!  I was going to beat my record, I was going to hit my goal time!!

Then I got to the finish line.  I saw 30:35 (hello MFC again!) and the official time was 30:36.  My heart sank.  How could this be?!  There is no way I ran that fast and took 1:35 to run 0.1 mile.  There's no way!!  Of course, at the time I didn't take into account the fact that maybe all of the clocks weren't 100% in sync with each other.  I didn't take into account that maybe the one at mile 3 could have been off a bit.  I just accepted that I didn't meet my goal.  I ran a good race, I was happy with how I felt, and now it was time for a banana & to wait for Wifey at the finish line.

When I grabbed a banana out of the bin and turned off my music is when it dawned on me that I never stopped the MMR clock!!!  Damn it!!  I was hoping that would tell a different story and that maybe I really did beat my 30:05 if not the 30:00.  But when I stopped it it told me that I ran 3.45 miles in 32:44.  I couldn't figure out at that moment if I had done it or not.  It would have to wait until later when I could see the splits and do some math.  So off to the finish line for me!!

Wifey did great!!  She took almost 3 minutes off of her time & crossed at 35:55!!  (Hello yet again MFC!!)  I'm sure its shorter than that but she also forgot to stop her MMR app, lol.  We're a winning combination, the two of us, haha. 

Results

OK, here are my "official" stats:
  • My time was 30:36
  • I came in 121 out of 253 total
  • I came in 54 out of 153 for women
  • I came in 12 out of 39 for my age group
  • My average pace was 9:50
  • Anyone have an idea what an age graded PLP is?  Because mine is 48.57
I can't be disappointed with that!

So now for my personal analysis of my MapMyRun stats for this race. 
  • I ran the first mile in 8:12 (holy crap!!)  Right there there is a time difference of 1:33!
  • I ran the second mile in 9:27
  • I ran the third mile in 9:30
Right there, that puts me at 3 miles at a time of 27:09.  Even if it took me an entire minute to run the last 0.1 miles (which I know that it did not), that would put my time at 28:09.  Of course, MMR might not be the most entirely accurate thing in the world so there is some room for error on that.

If you look at the graph of my speed, right where it drops off at the end (where I finished but failed to stop recording), the time where it starts to plunge is 29:54 (and my pace is 6:14!!  OMG!!).  Again, not the most accurate science in the whole world.

So while I can't 100% prove it, my spidey sense is telling me that I beat both my PR & 30:00!!  Unfortunately I don't know the exact number so I can't be sure what I did, but it's probably somewhere between 28:09 and 29:54.  I am super happy about this and also super frustrated at my failure to stop the clock!  If I don't get one for Christmas (**Hint!  Hint!  I have an amazon wishlist!!**) I'm definitely buying a GPS watch for myself.  I think it would be easier to remember to stop that and it will probably be more accurate than the MMR app.

So some lessons learned at this race, but either way I am very happy with how I did and I can't wait to do it again next year!!  The day was followed up by the township holiday parade & tree lighting ceremony - a very festive day for Burlington indeed!


**Race pics are not posted yet, but when I find them I will share**


2 comments:

  1. Sweet!! Love this recap - isn't racing with a spouse so fun? seeing her on the course must have been greeeat! check this out for PLP http://www.compuscore.com/agegrade.htm
    i can tell you my GPS watch is my fav running accessory. i don't run with a phone, so it is my only option and i heart it! depending on the one you get, you can program it for "workouts" which means you could set a distance in it and it will automatically record the time at the finish so you don't have to remember to. buuut, i bet with a few more races, you'll find it becomes second nature, esp to a numbers nerd like you (takes one to know one!!) in fact, if i don't wear a watch for a run (happens occasionally) my hand automatically goes to my wrist to hit the stop button :)
    GREAT WORK LADIES!!
    PS that is a PR in my book!

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    1. Thanks! So my PLP tells me that I am just about average. Ill take it!

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