Sweetheart Run 5K Race Report

I had a great chat with Coach on Saturday. I was telling him that I was a bit nervous about this race. I was really only doing it for fun and haven't done any speedwork this year. But with a day to go, I couldn't shake the desire to "do well" and pull off a time within my normal 5K finish time window. He reminded me that I'm training for a half-marathon, not a 5K. By my own definition, if I finish the 5K feeling good and wanting to do it again, that is success.

And that brings me to this morning. I looked at the weather forcast. Temp was expected to be about 34 deg at race start, which would be good, but it was windy with a windchill of about 28. Not horrible, but not ideal either.

I made the executive decision to go with a wardrobe change to something a bit more conducive for blocking the wind. This meant leaving the cheetah skirt at home because it no longer matched. However, I was set on wearing a skirt of some sort over my tights, so I went with basic black instead. No photo of the outfit today, sorry.

Long story short, the wind was not my friend this morning. There was a segment on the bridge that was straight into a headwind. I'm fairly certain that one bit is going to be quite a bit off my normal 5K pace.

Update: Just looked at the results on my Garmin in half mile splits. Yep. Exactly what I thought, a 10:41 pace for that bit. Ouch. Freaking wind. The remainder of the race had the wind either as a cross wind or at my back, and those splits are more on par with my 5K pace. And in my typical style, I picked it up at the end and 'sprinted' across the finish line. Woot!

Overally, while I'm not *thrilled*, I am still pleased with my final time: 30:34 (a 9:48 avg pace) which put me 7th of 25 in the f40-49 age group. Husband had a good race as well: 26:38, 6th m40-49.

[Side note: When I mentioned racing a new age group, I was expecting 5 year age groups. This is not the first (or second or third or fourth) year in the f40-49 age group. LOL]

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks. We have tomorrow off and are hoping to take advantage of the opportunity for a bike ride. Fingers crossed for good weather!