Category: Races

St. Paddy’s Day Dash Down Greenville 5k 2018

The one with the wrong bib number…

Coming off two weeks of easy running and very low mileage, I went into the Dash Down Greenville with very low expectations, a desire to run fast, a goal to have fun, and the belief that I had on the correct bib number.

My plan was simple. To go out fast and hold that pace for as long as I could and finish with whatever I had left. Mile 1. Racing past the smoky grills. 6:02. Mile 2. Past the Village Apartments and up the steep hill to Skillman. 6:09. Mile 3. One more mile is nothing, Keep Going. 6:30. The Last .1. Legs don’t fail me now. 19:20. 10th Overall Female. Only the results won’t show that exactly. I found out later on the my husband and I accidentally switched numbers. So instead of 10th Overall Female, I finished 3rd in the Men’s 40-44 Age Group! #runnerproblems

I recovered fast and began my cool down a couple minutes after the finish. Two miles easy. Soon after, I met up with my husband. We grabbed some coffee and our kids. Then we headed out to Guy Mezger’s Combat Sports Club for Saturday Class.

19:20 is not a PR for me, but it is a great first race back for me. Historically, I have had to work my way down to a 19 something 5k. Last year after four solid weeks of training, I ran a 40:32 10k, a 62:00 15k a week later, and then a 19:01 in the Dash Down Greenville 5k a week after that. My race performance went downhill from there. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Half didn’t go well and my spring 5k times stayed between 19:36-20:15. That said, I am very happy starting this next 4-5 weeks of training with a 19:20 5k.

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Hot Chocolate 15k Race Recap

The one in the 72 mile week…

A 15k.  A marathon simulation.  A great run.  A solid time.

After three weeks of running 80+ miles and this week being a 70+ mile week, this 15k was designed to feel like the second half of a marathon.  I had one easy day of running this week.  Yesterday.  4 miles easy with some strides.  The other days were packed with miles, hills, and more miles, which I will elaborate more on tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been hyper focused on school these past few weeks.  Cramming my brain with information on motherboards, chip sets, form factors, quadratic equations, difference quotients, operating systems.  The list goes on and on.  This hasn’t forced me to run less, but it has forced me to think less about running.  This is not a bad thing.  Looking back, race mode hit too early on some race weekends, and when it was Go Time, I already felt worn out from focusing so much on the race.  (Yes, I know.  To all of those who know me well… You were right.  I may overthink things occasionally.)

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The Race.

Going into this 15k, I looked forward to some competition.  I wanted there to be some fast women that would push me to do better, and with this being such a big event, fast women showed up.

I held back in the first 5k, my plan being to get faster throughout the race.  Most of the first 5k was uphill inviting fatigue to creep up a little earlier than expected.  The first 5k.  21:22.  I picked it up a little after that but soon met up with a couple of killer hills and some wind.  One woman passed me early in the second 5k but by mile 6, I passed her back.  The second 5k.  21:02.

I had no spring in my legs to start, and by Mile 7 they felt like dead weight.  I focused on relaxing and on catching the woman ahead of me.  I past her on the first half of a steep hill.  Big mistake.  That hill was bigger than I thought.  She past me back on the second half to the top.

I stayed within reach calculating when to kick.  Mile 9.  I started to kick, and when I saw the finish my legs of jello somehow sprinted past her and two men before crossing the finish.  Third 5k.  20:58.  The last 100 meters… 4:59/mile.

I ended up 6th Overall Female with a time of 1:03:22.  Average Pace.  6:48/mile.  Exactly where I wanted to be for this race.

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