Women Running Wild

Earlier this year I sat down to make New Year's resolutions.  Some revolved around life, some revolved around general fitness and health, exactly one revolved around running: I wanted to run a 5K in under 27 minutes in 2013.  The whole half marathon thing wasn't even an idea at that point in time and I never thought I'd run this in an actual race or anything. I just wanted to get on a treadmill or out on a track at some point and run 3.1 miles in under 27 minutes.

I still need to do some work in order to make this happen, but I am much, much closer than I was.

Saturday I ran the Women Running Wild 5K in Osterville MA.  I ran it in 27:10 . So very, very close to accomplishing my goal of running a 5K in under 27 minutes, and it's only June.  Some take aways from this race and thoughts for future races are below.  This isn't all that orderly or anything, more a stream of consciousness.

There is a me who would have been absolutely devastated about coming so close to a goal in the past.  I've had moments, some recently, where SO CLOSE was almost worse than SO FAR.  That person came around the corner, saw that I was .1 miles away.  Saw that the clock said 26:xx.  Realized that the xx was 40 and knew that there was no way, no kick I had, no chance of crossing in under 27.  And she was annoyed, but really very quiet compared to the much more positive me that has grown and thrived in this new and wonderful running world.

Thoughts regarding the time and my goals (which honestly, I'd like to get out of the way because I have more important things to discuss below):

27:10 is a time I am really proud of.  It was 63/371 over all and 9/48 in my Age Group.  Every other race that I've been in I've hovered around the half way mark in terms of finishers.  This put me solidly in the top 20% of finishers both overall and in my Age Group.

My original goals was a New YEAR'S resolution.  I am 11 seconds away from my goal as of June.  I *know* I can knock 11 seconds off this distance in the next few months of training.

I used to  be amazed when I could run consecutive miles under 10 min a mile.  This race was solidly under 9 min miles.  27:10 is an average pace of 8:46 a mile.

I have now run 2 5Ks.  Ever.  You can read about the first one here.  But if we want to talk about times...I knocked 2:48 seconds off my 5K from my first race to my second one.  I can be a little annoyed about the 11 seconds that were left hanging between me and my New Year's resolution, but I'm unlikely to do that again in the near future and I should be proud of it.

I ran a smart, negative split race.  First mile was about 9:09 and I kept chipping away from there.  Last mile speed was down to 8:30 a mile.  In fact, when I looked at the Nike+ data (and yes I know, that should be taken with a grain of salt, but it's what I have right now until I can get a Garmin) my first .5 miles is where I lost a bunch of speed.  I remember being slower there, b/c I was passing a ton of people.  Note to self: start further up.

I was passed exactly 4 times this whole race.  From the start, on.  I passed 2 of those people later and never caught 2 of the other ones.  It was a great race for me.

I probably should have fueled better before this race.  I hadn't had many carbs earlier in the day (half an english muffin an a couple bites of bread.)  I think that contributed to my lackluster kick in the last .4

The best parts of this race had absolutely zero to do with the times above, they are below:

I got to run this race with two of my very close friends M & K.  It was absolutely awesome to run a race with such awesome women.  After I crossed the finish line I went back to cheer them on and ran back the last .2 with them.  It was so much incredible fun.  When we came around 2 of our friends were cheering everyone on.  It was amazing.

We had so much fun running together I'm going to pace K in her goal 10K in September.  I'm super psyched about it and really hope I can do a good job to help her get her goal! :)

The race was an all women's race.  It was so supportive I couldn't believe it.  When I passed people I gave them encouragement and saw others doing the same.  I let out an involuntary woot at the water stop b/c I was so close to my goal pace and some women around me cheered in response.  I saw a girl of about 8 who I passed running with her mom and gave her a thumbs up, she grinned a grin the size of Texas and I was so glad I got to see her cross the finish around 31/32 minutes.

The weather was gorgeous, albeit a bit warm because the start time was 6pm, and the course, while there were rolling hills throughout was really pretty and not terrible in terms of hills.  There was lots of joy and cheer.  It was a very fun environment.

So that's it, a great weekend on the Cape filled with clamming, friends, fun and laughter plus a crazy PR, even though it was JUST SHY of my goal.  Plus, I now have a t-shirt that says "Women Running Wild" on it.  Obvi a win.