Sunday, July 15, 2012

WDF 5K Race Report and Mid-Month Tally

Women's Distance Festival 5K Race Report

Today I ran the local WDF 5K.  This is one of my favorite events in the area.  I love seeing all the women encouraging each other plus we get a technical t, chocolates, and a flower at the finish line and it's a flat, fast course (most races in this area are hilly).  Last year I had my all time Personal Best 5K on this course.  I really didn't think I was in shape for a PR this year, but I hoped it would be close (and much faster than the 5K I ran in May).
Registration Tent


Start time was 7am, and since I hadn't gone to packet pickup the day before, I needed to arrive at the site early enough to get that taken care of.  Luckily, it's a relatively small race, so there wasn't much of a  line at the registration tent when I arrived at 6:30am.    


Cute shirt!
I had a small panic attack when I realized that they had me registered as a walker.  Um. Can I change that, please?  No problem! Since the race wasn't chip timed anyway, all they needed to do was cross out the "W" that was next to my name in the racers list and on my bib.  Low tech, for the win!  

Oh, and the hot chocolate race van/motor home was there (trust me even though my photo didn't turn out well, it's the hot chocolate race van). They were there to serve up some hot chocolate icee thing after the 5K and register folks for their 5K/15K at end of September. Got to see the jacket that come in their race bag. They seem like a fun crew. Can't wait to run that one.

Neither my running partner nor I were feeling very confident about a fast race today and decided that our target today was to get in under 30min. That seemed doable to me.  We figured our best race plan was to start out at a reasonable pace and then kick it in and go as fast as we could when we were half a mile from the finish line.  Of course, that plan went out the window when the gun went off.  I checked my Garmin a quarter mile in and we were running WAY too fast.
My post-race happy face

At the 2 mile marker, I told her that the new goal was to get in under 28 mins.  I guess that's all the motivation she needed because she sped up  from there and I couldn't catch up.  She crossed the line at 27:15 (yay, her!).  I, on the other hand, just barely missed this new on-the-fly-goal and crossed at 28:01 (approx a 9:02 mi/mi overall pace).  Turns out to be my second fastest 5K ever, so I'm quite happy with my time, just not over-the-top-thrilled like she is with hers. 

I may be slightly crazy, because I figured it was a good idea to do a 28 mile bike ride afterwards with husband.  ;-)

Mid-Month Tally

July seems to be shaping up to be a great month for me:

  • Walking: 20.0 mi
  • Running: 38.9 mi
  • Cycling: 162.8 mi (yeah, baby!)
  • Swimming: nada (swimming mojo has gone missing)
  • Races: one 5K

There are 16 days left in the month, but only two more weekends and no holidays, so I don't expect the back-half of the month to be able to match the front half.

10 comments:

  1. What a neat 5k. I like small races. Good job on the mid month tally. Keep it up!

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  2. Nice job on your 5K! And those are strong mid-month numbers!

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  3. Congrats on a great race!!! July is great for you, keep it up!

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  4. Nice job on the race!
    Anything under 30-minutes is great in my books!

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  5. Awesome race for both of you, congratulations! Good time for 5k indeed! Your training is looking awesome, well done!

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  6. Yay for flat local 5ks that allow you to knock your initial time goal way out of the park!

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  7. Congrats on your 5K! You made awesome time!! :0)

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  8. A technical t, chocolates, a flower at the finish line and a flat, fast course - you can't beat that! Congrats on getting a fast time, too!

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  9. COngrats to both of you on a great race! Now I'm dreaming about a chocolate icey thing...

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