Two days after the Shamrock ½ Marathon last month, I signed up for the Inaugural ODU Big Blue 5K. It would be the 8th J&A race I would run, & my 4th 5K experience. I was initially on the fence, as it altered my original plan to run ONE race per month for the year of 2014 {my April race had already been determined to be the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler; click here for that recap}. It was also a bit expensive in my opinion, at $40 a pop. However, as a prior ODU student, wife of an ODU alumni, & overall Monarch fan, I decide to run it merely for the experience!
During the week leading up to the race, I took it very easy. It ended up being my lowest mileage week of the year so far. That was okay though, since I had just run a hard-effort 10 mile race only 6 days prior to the 5K. I also took it easy since my knee was feeling better & I didn’t want to mess up a good thing!
The night before the race, hubby & I had a nice date night out to dinner at a local restaurant in Portsmouth called Stove. As a side note, I wasn’t super impressed with the restaurant… just not my cup of tea {P.S. the dessert however was fantastic! See below}. However, any date night with my hubby I will certainly take!!
Race morning began at 7:35am. It was ahh-mazing to wake up for a race, without an alarm clock blaring & not at “oh-dark-thirty”. After play time with the munchkins, I prepared a breakfast of scrambled eggs & enjoyed 2 of my Hummingbird Muffins. At 9:30am, we loaded the car up & headed the couple of miles over to the race location. I picked up my packet then we watched the 1K run, mostly cute little kids. After a short warm-up (maybe ½ mile), I headed to the start. For this race, there were 5 corrals & my bib put me in the first one.
Once the horn blew, off we went! The first mile was much harder than most {okay, maybe all!} of my initial race miles. I definitely started out too fast & knew I had given too much by the halfway point.
Mile 1 – 7:09
By mile 2, I was super parched! Where’s the water stop?! About this time I was really feeling the 79°F with 37% humidity that would be the race weather; according to my Garmin. MUCH different than the recent running conditions & bitter winter weather we experienced for the past few months. Somewhere during this mile, I knew I would not PR. Sad, but hey, such is life.
Mile 2 – 7:54
My overall thought process during the 3rd mile, besides “Are we done yet?!” was make sure there is a 7:xx on the mile split. Well, that didn’t happen. Oh well, during mile 3 I was greeted with slippery grass on a field (I think that was during this part of the race!), more curvy twists & turns, & an attempt to dodge a cone. Ha! I was also happily greeted with sideline high fives from a couple of cute little gals, one being a friends’ daughter. They definitely gave me the final push I needed to get to the finish line.
Mile 3 – 8:02
Heading into the stadium, I tried to kick it… but dang if that slippery grass didn’t slow me down?! How the heck do the football players do it? I now understand why they so easily fall down & tackle one another! Apparently a few friends saw me at this point, as well as my hubby & kiddos with my sister. Clearly I had tunnel vision because I didn’t even see them. I just wanted to make it to the finish line & BE DONE!
Final 0.12 to the finish – 7:26
OFFICIAL TIME – 24:00 (7:45/mile overall average pace)
*Garmin Time – 23:59 (7:41/mile overall average pace)*
14th female overall, out of 1,070
5th runner in the 30-34 age group
So, what did I learn today? Well, a couple of things. First, I missed Julie being there to pace me to a PR. Although I feel I pace fairly well for the distance races, I definitely need work for the shorter races. I also know I am a better runner in the cold weather. Nearly 80°F with the sun beaming down is lovely at the beach, but not when you’re trying to PR on the pavement! I also learned that when I beat myself up over not PR’ing, the overall results can actually boost my feelings on a particular race. Prior to seeing that I placed amongst the top 15 females, I was internally beating myself up. Critically thinking where I could have pushed a little more to get a couple extra seconds off my time. I need to just realize that as long as I give it my all, it is my best & I should not be defeated. Overall, I am happy with my performance & the newest race in the J&A Racing arsenal!
Up Next for The Running Blonde: Who Knows?! My race for May is TBD….. 
Football players (and Ultimate Frisbee players like me) wear cleats when they are playing to not slip on the slippery grass.
That’s true, Mark. Good point! I don’t think road race running would go well in cleats though!