Race Recap: Falcon 5K

This past Saturday I ran my 9^th 5K—but my first time running the Falcon 5K in VA Beach. The race was held at one of the local public high schools, & I believe, it benefitted their track & field/cross-county team (at least that’s who I made my check payable to!). My coach had recommended that I complete this race as a speed test for the upcoming half marathon {Shamrock}, so I happily obliged. One of my running goals for 2015 is to improve upon my time/speed/endurance at the shorter distances, specifically, the 5K & 10K. So, more experience is exactly what I needed. Practice makes perfect!

These past 2 months have brought about more weekly running volume than ever before. I have pushed my body to the limits, & surprisingly, it is cooperating (knock on wood)! From January 1^st up until Saturday’s race, I had logged a whopping 381.53 miles. One of those weeks was even my first 50+ mile week. I had intended to do a blog post about that spectacular week, but time just simply got away from me. Such is life! Personally, the twins are deep in the trenches of the wild 3-year-old stage & are keeping us busy from sun-up until sun-down! And their sleeping regimen, well, that’s a whole ‘nother topic all together! There is a lot of “this too shall pass” crossing through my mind a lot these days, & on some occasions, verbally {loudly!!} from my mouth. Running however remains my constant stress-reliever & happy place; along with time spent being with my amazing hubby.

Back to this race recap, now that I have provided you with a brief current life recap….ha!

Race morning began uneventfully with a 6am alarm so that I could leave my house by 6:45am. I then headed the 25 minutes to the race location. En route, I enjoyed my usual Larabar ALT & a banana. Once there, Julie & I completed almost 2 miles to warm-up, & then headed to the start line. The start line, being about 30 feet from our cars, was in the school parking lot. I must say, I am very much enjoying these small-town-locally-benefitted races!

Just before heading to the start, I made a last-minute decision to shed the long-sleeve shirt that was under my Running Etc. Ambassador Team singlet—since the sun was out & the temp seemed to be rising. This proved to be a good choice. Temp-wise, I was comfortable the entire race! My watch however decided to have issues in the 3 minutes between the warm-up completion & the race start. At the moment my legs took off, I had no idea if I would even have a functioning watch for which to base my pace upon. Regardless, we were running—& quite fast it seemed! A few days before the race, my coach had given me a goal of 7:15/mile. Guuulp…. that would be 13 seconds per mile faster than my 5K PR…. a TALL order, I thought.

With this race being at a high school, there was a good amount of teenagers, who appeared to be pretty speedy at the start. I tried to both stay out of their way, as well as not run their pace & kill my chances of a PR. I sort of stayed in line with 10-15 seconds behind Julie, as well as about 5-10 seconds behind my friend Marie’s husband, Bill {both Running Etc. Ambassador Team members!}. The first mile surprisingly ticked by pretty quickly. Somewhere along the way, my watch appeared to be working again. Even if it didn’t pick up the entire race, I would at least have a total time clocked, as well as being able to see my actual pace during the race… once it finally connected with the satellites.

Mile 1 – 6:59 (due to the Garmin issue, actual pace according to my coach was about 7:10)

Most of my “un-PR-ing” 5Ks had been when I felt like total crap during the 2^nd mile. When the first mile dinged with such a fast pace, I thought, “great, here’s another non-PR”. BUT, this time was different. I didn’t get that crappy feeling. Was it a hard workout? Sure thing, as it should be. But overall I felt pretty darn good! Maybe it’s due to the massive {for me} amount of miles I had been logging during the prior 2 months. Or as my coach said, it’s because of all the slow miles I had been doing, as part of my HR-based training. Regardless, maybe, just maybe, I am becoming a believer!

Mile 2 – 7:28 (due to the Garmin issue, actual pace according to my coach was about 7:18)

Okay, just a mile more. I can do this, right?! I think the main motivation for me during this race was just keeping up with my “target” people {Julie & Bill}, as well as every so often I would pass people—even my favorite, a few guys got “chicked”! Being able to reel the pace in during the final mile of a 5K was probably my “ahh-ha” moment, which some people say is pretty hard to do. I need to stick with exactly what I am doing & it will pay off.

Mile 3 – 7:18 (due to the Garmin issue, actual time could have been +/- 10 seconds)

The pretty cool part about how the Falcon 5K ended was finishing on their high school track. That was a new one for me. Once we turned onto the track, I knew I had less than 400m to go. I could see the finish & I knew it was going to be a PR kind of day {I actually knew that about a mile earlier!}. Kick it & finish strong, I told myself!

Final 0.13 miles to the Finish – 7:16 (due to the Garmin issue, actual time could have been +/- 10 seconds)

Naturally, I am ecstatic about this race performance! It had been 447 days {December 2013 to be exact} since I had run the Santa Shuffle in Portsmouth, VA in 23:09 (7:28/mile). I had tried a few times to beat that time, each time to no avail. On Saturday though, I crushed that time by 22 seconds!

Official Time: 22:47 (7:20/mile)

Garmin Time {for what it’s worth}: 22:47 for 3.13 miles (7:16/mile)

Overall Female {because really, who cares about those boys, HA!}: 7^th out of 81; but 3^rd of ADULT women {not teenagers… sorry youngins’!}

Age Group: 2^nd out of 14 {CONGRATS to Julie on 1^st place in our AG!}

Thanks to all of the volunteers at the race, who directed the runners on where to go & provided a water station! The VB police’s presence was also nice & appreciated. I think this fun little hometown race will be a nice one to run each year. I really enjoyed plodding through a quiet neighborhood that I hadn’t run through before. Kudos to Cox High School for putting on a good event!

Up Next For The Running Blonde: Shamrock Half Marathon, on March 22^nd {a FAVORITE race for local runners!}