Jumping up and down, jumping up and down, An Ras Mor 5K Race Report

An Ras Mor logo of Somerville Road Runners (go black and yellow!!)

Right now, I know that regular readers of my blog (I know of a few out there, thank you!) are probably falling over from the shock that this is my 3rd post in a week. That hasn’t happened in, oh, I can’t tell you when.  Just like my first mile being done in 6:58 today.  That has been done, oh NEVER BEFORE!! And I kept on going, I didn’t keel over and die!!  (Even more strangely, my mind started playing tricks on me, thinking I could break into the 22 range?? Must have been lack of oxygen to the brain.)

JUMPING UP AND DOWN!! JUMPING UP AND DOWN!! (Yeah, I can be kind of spastic sometimes…) 

My stats: 

• 17/123 in my division, I am so psyched!!  (Top 13%)
• 65/408 women (Top 15%)
• 296/861 overall (Top 34%)
• Garmin time: 24:30 (started it, stupidly, before I crossed start line, and we only had a timing mat at the end)
• Official time: 24:34, with official distance of 3.1
• Garmin distance: 3:19 miles
• Average paces: officially 7:55 per mile.  Garmin pace: 7:41/mile.
• Garmin mile splits: 6:58, 8:00, 8:10, and 7:10 (last .19 miles.)

I calculated my actual time for 3.1, and based on that last .19 miles, figured it to actually be more like 23:50, which was totally my goal!!

 I think I am totally cool with only having 231 guys beat me because that means I beat 222 of them!! Woohoo, love the running skirt!! (Yes, I do wear it on purpose, it kind of motivates me to keep passing guys.)  I have to figure out a way to put the words “you’ve been chicked!” on my back at some point, LOL.  (Just kidding, I’m not like that. But it does feel good to pass guys and feel a bit girly while doing it.)  I’ve kind of decided I don’t care anymore if people think it’s silly to wear a running skirt, or wear pink, both make me happy so I’m going to do both!

Things I’ve got to do better:

• Spend little bit more time warming up, although today I probably did more than usua, just not as much as I do on the treadmill.
• Keep my asthmatic lungs more in check, I felt like I was coughing at points during the race, and afterward, I definitely had some of the asthmatic cough kicking in. (Yes, I carried and used my inhaler during the race. It’s worth carrying it.)
• You see the discrepancies in distances and times above?   RUN THE TANGENTS BETTER!!
•  Um, pacing?? Where have my magical pacing powers gone??

So, as you can see, I went out too fast. I looked down at my watch at one point and saw something in the low 7′s, but I was like, “I feel ok, don’t look at the watch again.” Mile 2 considerably slower. Mile 3 included the water stop, and a tiny walk break later to eat some sports beans, and catch my breath. It was in the 43-44 range, temp wise, so I did feel an impact on my breathing, even afterward.

I can honestly say, I’ve never done a below 7 minute mile. EVER. To give you an idea of the last time I did a time trial (at indoor track about 15 months ago while with MVS), it was 7:29, and yep, I stopped immediately afterward that night.  Today, I kept going!!! I realized that I’m also I’m running about the same pace I did in high school. That’s so awesome!! (Of course, in high school, we had no idea I had asthma, go figure.)

Our race was an out and back course, down Mass Ave into Harvard Square and then back  up to Central Square.  Although I did a bit of weaving in the beginning (ugh), I finally did find my rhythm and stopped doing the giant slalom/super G (as my brother calls it) after about .25-.5 miles, I think.

Because everyone I was hanging out with was faster than me (hello, 7th and 8th girls overall), and my friend Dan did somewhere in the 22:30 range, we were able to bolt out of the race pretty early.  Believe it or not, but there are two races held on the same day, both names starting with An Ras, and being 5Ks, run by clubs with the word “Somerville” in the name. (And no, it’s not a coincidence.  I don’t know all the details but way back when, the other group splintered themselves off from the Somerville Road Runners.)  So, one of the girls’ boyfriends had signed up for the other race. So did a few of my friends, thinking it was the race that my running club organizes.

So, we rushed over there as fast as we could, and I was able to see one of my friends finish in literally the top 2% of his division, and something like the top 1% overall.   How do you round up a percentage that starts with two zeros??  [Yeah...he's fast, you could say. ]  So happy for him that he can do that and keep a level head on his shoulders. 

Although I’m disappointed in myself for having walked a bit through the water stop, and then walking about 10 feet later on to take some sports beans, I am not going to let it eat me up. My Garmin still says I ran an average of 7:41 and that was truly my goal when I got up this morning.  As long as I know that my actual 3.10 mile time was under 24, I am happy.  

I texted my trainer and immediately got back a response of  “That is AWESOME!!”  Everything he’s taught me so far has really paid off. He’s worth every penny.

This was my first race of the year, so I know I can improve. Whereas at first I was kind of disappointed to see that 24 as the first part of my time on the clock, I realized, a few years ago that would have been unthinkable to me.  Now I’m disappointed to see it?  Nope, I have come a long way in just a few years, and especially with all the changes in my life over the past several months, I realy have nothing to complain about. Only something to smile about. (And thanks to the two of you on Twitter who thought I should change my Twitter name of middlepackgirl to “frontpackgirl.”  So flattered…would you believe it’s not been taken yet?? LOL)

I now know what my top percentage goal is going to be for the year for my division. If I make it, I’ll let you know.

YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Brighton Volvo Thanksgiving 5K Race Report

Image from Boston Volvo 5K race website

I’ve had this post written, but as usual, I’ve been disorganized and not actually published it!

As is our custom for the past 4 years, my brother Jim and I ran together on Thanksgiving.  The first year we ran together, we did the Feaster Five 5K. The second and third years, we ran the Feaster Five 5 Miler.  This year, I meant for us to run with the Somerville Road Runners and their Gobble 3X, but I didn’t have my act together enough to get us signed up in time, and the race closed out with 2600 runners. I wanted to volunteer, but that would have meant we couldn’t run together, and I knew my brother would be disappointed (as would I.)  At one point, I thought of volunteering and asked my brother if he would mind also doing it, but he said there aren’t many days he gets to sleep in, so he felt bad saying it, but he wanted to be lazy.  Honestly, I can’t say as I blame the guy.  He got in at 12:30 in the night on Tuesday evening, and he caught a  6 a.m. bus back to NYC on Friday (he had to work that day at 11.)

Anyway, my brother hadn’t run much since his 100 mile trail race in October.  He had planned to take 4 weeks off anyway, so it was easy for him to obey the doc’s orders after he ruptured a tendon behind  his right knee. You can read his race report here. So, when it came time to pack running clothes, he didn’t think about packing pants, just shorts.  Those of you who live or have lived in New England know how strange the weather can be here around this time of year. I ran in shorts on Tuesday morning, but on Thanksgiving, it was long tights, winter hat, gloves, and two-layers-on-top weather, with temps in the 20s, and some pretty good winds. So yeah, he was a **wee** bit cold that morning!

Anyway, we got our bibs, kept warm in the car as long as we could, and visited the porta pottie lines (which were surprisingly not bad…) For the race start, it was just, well, as my brother called it, a “moving herd.”  No gun or anything.  We had the disposable ChronoTrack timing chips, but there was no mat at the beginning, so we had no idea where the actual start line was. But hey, it was only $20, and we were just there to enjoy ourselves. As my brother said, we were like a “moving herd” – we all just kind of started moving forward, even without any gun or horn that we could hear, to get us started.

That was literally our only plan – to just have fun and talk the whole way. Imagine, then, my surprise when I realized we did an awesome progression run.

Stats:

• First mile: 8:35
• Second mile: 8:15
• Third mile: 7:55
• Last .13: 7:05 pace
• Overall time on Garmin: 25:39 (again, didn’t know when to start it!)
• Overall official time: 25:59
• Place overall: 312/1181 (Top 26%)
• Place in sex: 98/658 (Top 15%)
• Place in division, F30-39: 31/196 (Top 16%)

There were definitely a few hills in this course, especially during the first mile. My brother said his legs felt a bit tight, so I really didn’t want him to hurt himself any further. It’s funny but toward the end of mile 3, he said “you want to kick it in?”  And then in a few seconds, “you want to sprint to the end?”  To which my answer was, “I am sprinting already! That last mile was under 8!” It might have just been the cold, but I could definitely feel my lungs getting ready for an asthma attack at the end, but I didn’t want to slow down to take out the inhaler (which I usually run with nowadays.)

Anyway, it felt awesome to run with my brother again. He’s been a role model to me when it comes to running, and now with his redesigned blog, I hope, to many more.  Please check out his blog, it’s called “Coaching, Training and Motivation.”