Lucy Corr 5k Post Race Analysis

This morning Stephanie and I ran in the Lucy Corr Foundation Run for the Future 5k. The proceeds from this race benefit the Lucy Corr Village, an assisted living home and long term care facility.

The race started at 8am and was divided into two groups: walkers and runners. The walkers started first and walked a different route. The runners lined up after the walkers left, and went in the opposite direction.

Before this race even started, I knew it was going to be hard for me. The temperature was already 80 and the humidity was about 80%. It felt like I was swimming through the air. Stephanie and I jogged about a half mile warm-up, stretched, and lined up at the starting line already dripping with sweat. We agreed that neither of us was expecting to do fantastic. We were just concentrating on finishing this race to be done with it. I wasn’t feeling it at all this morning.

When we lined up for the race, Stephanie said she wanted to line up closer to the front after being bottlenecked near the back at the beginning of our last race. I was a little nervous about being toward the front, because I knew all of these people behind me were going to pass me. I could almost hear their voices yelling stuff at me as they passed – things like, “ You should have gone with the walkers!”

So the race started, and early on I saw a bunch of people pass me. My runkeeper app spoke up and told me that I had finished a quarter of a mile, and I was running it at a 10:27 per mile pace, a little slower than my last 5k pace time of 10:03. I thanked it and sped up a little. I just wanted to finish this race. It was hot, sticky, and felt like a chore. I wasn’t worrying about finding anyone that I wanted to try and pass, I just wanted to get done.

Soon my runkeeper app told me that I had just finished half a mile, and my new average pace was 9:20. That couldn’t be right. I figured the app’s GPS was messed up, so I would just run as well as I could and find out my time at the end. At three quarters of a mile it said I was averaging 9:15 per mile. What if the app was right? Was I really running that fast? I kept my speed up just in case. When I reached the first mile marker sign at the same time my phone said I had run exactly one mile, I realized my app WAS right. I WAS running that fast! 9:12 for my first mile. WHAT?!?! I just ran a 9:12 mile.

At that point, I started feeling good, and I didn’t want to slow down. All I could think about was keeping up my pace. I reached the second mile marker with an average pace of 9:20 per mile. I was doing it. I ran by the water station. I REALLY wanted to beat my last time. This was turning from a “get it over with” race into a shot of achieving my 30 minute 5k goal. I knew that I was going to slow down eventually, but I just had to keep pushing as long as I could.

I reached 2.5 miles with an average pace of 9:30. I had to keep this pace up in order to come in under 30 minutes. I just kept telling myself that I could do it, I could make it. I came to the final stretch, and pushed myself to run even harder. Stephanie appeared as I approached the finish, and I heard her cheering and shouting at me that I was doing it, I was beating my goal. I ran across the finish line to the sound of “The Final Countdown” playing on the loudspeakers.

My final time:

28:36

Tagged as: pictures, Races, running, signs of progress