Thanksgiving 5K Report

I wrote my goals for the 5k on the post before, which is my running history. :-)

1. In a perfect world, I would love to PR- even by 1 second. :-) My PR is 22:38
2. Sub-23
3. Sub-24

To PR, I would need to average about a 7:15 pace. I was able to do this on the downhill section of Hood to Coast so I knew my leg turnover was there. But I didn't know if I had been doing enough speedwork lately. I was very optimistic, but nervous! My last 5k was a year ago and I ran a 25:06. I was pretty sure I could beat that. :-)

I did a bunch of reading on 5k strategy but basically you run as fast as you can maintain as long as you can. :-) My goal (after talking to Cherl) was to run a 7:30, 7:20, 7:10, and then all out! I thought it was a great plan. Jeff and I were running together, but I had a feeling he would beat me. I was okay with this but wanted to keep him in sight. We couldn't run together since we can't talk at that pace anyway! I planned on music, but left my headphones at home.

First mile- Jeff and I together run a 7:28, pretty good!! Second mile was uphill and I tried to keep up the pace, but it was tough. Ran a 7:26. The third mile I thought I would be able to reign it in but just could not get my legs to move fast enough. I ran a 7:43 and Jeff pulled ahead. The last .1 I was able to run a 6:10 and I was done!!

So, official time 23:13. I was really hoping to break 23, but couldn't quite do it. Jeff ran a 22:55. I was very happy for him. I was bummed at first with my results until I realized I have not been training for a 5k and had only done 2 speedwork sessions since September! A 7:28 pace is still very fast and ultimately I am happy. I wanted to know where I am right now and now I know what my 5k fitness level is.

It was fun! The good news is that I won my age group for the first time ever! There were 74 people in my age group, so not too shabby!

I was proud of Jeff. He has been doing Crossfit 3x a week and running 2-3 times a week with me. He is doing awesome!