Legs For Life 5K

So, today was the first race of the year and I won't lie I've been pouting a bit this afternoon about my finishing time. I did manage to finish about 2 1/2 minutes faster than last year's time on this course but I did TONS of walking last year and was hoping for better. I think the biggest reason I am upset is that I think that once I started taking walk breaks they lasted longer than I really physically needed them to which means part of this is a mental block of not pushing through and that's very frustrating to me. I like to think of myself as more determined so it's a bit of a blow to the ego I suppose. All that being said, I am trying to keep in mind that this is in fact the first race and my slow time today leaves plenty of room for improvement. I also have to be a bit real with myself that I had been pretty well sedentary for most of the winter months up until about late February and maybe I set my expectations a bit too high. Enough with the pity party though...moving on.

The weather has been a bit wonky around here to say the least. At the beginning of the week we had beautiful weather in the upper 70s. However, by mid-week our forecast for this morning's race was predicting rain and temperatures in the low 30s with possible snow. Ouch! We received word that the registration center was being moved to a nearby school gymnasium and barring any severe weather, the show would go on so I did my best to prepare appropriately. I tend to wimp out in cold weather but since I knew this was my friend Miranda's very first 5K there was no way I was backing out! I did end up scoring a great deal on my very first article of Under Armour Cold Gear in the process (at 40% off no less), so that was a plus!

Of course I was up by 5:30 this morning with nervous anticipation. I tried to down as much water as possible because I never seem to really drink as much as I should. I also knew I should try and get some fuel in my belly (my belly was not real sure it was ready for anything though). I decided I would have to settle for one of my Mojo Clif bars on the drive there and even that was a bit of a struggle to get down. I met Miranda in the parking lot and we picked up our packets. This year the shirts were made of wicking material...very nice! With about 15 minutes to start we headed over to the starting line in the park. I couldn't make up my mind to keep my jacket on or off so I ended up just wearing it which turned out to be bad move #1. I also had a non-wicking heavy headband on to keep my poor ears from freezing off. Bad move #2. I haven't seen the post-race pictures yet, but I can only imagine what they look like since I ended up unzipping the jacket (didn't just discard it even though it is old because my luck I would have forgotten to take my car keys out first) but by race end I was running with jacket unzipped and flapping around and had ripped the headband off my head and shoved it in a pocket. Clothing lesson learned! :)

I did pick one girl that was pretty much my pacer for about 3/4 of the race. When she would slow down and walk, so would I and when she would run again I would too. I think the idea is good..but maybe I need to be a bit more ambitious with who I pick the next time (like not letting Miranda get out of my site!) because I think I am really taking walk breaks even when I might not REALLY need to, or at least longer ones than are actually needed. Must work on that! Closer to finish we ended up walking together and chatting a bit and then took off for the finish together. She ended up beating me by a few seconds. Miranda was waiting at the finish line to cheer me on...she had a great first 5K. I was so excited to see her that I forgot to turn the Garmin off after I finished!

My next 5K is April 16th, so I do have a couple of weeks to work on doing some things differently. I do think I need to approach this a bit more sensibly with an actual plan instead of just randomly running when I make the time if I want to improve. I'm a big fan of Jeff Galloway's plans since they incorporate both running and walking to get faster times but I haven't had a chance yet to get a schedule written out so that will be my first task to get done this weekend to start fresh next week. Obviously, I do hope to make it through a 5K with no walk breaks ASAP and also start building up to longer distances as well. Since I managed to jump in too fast too soon the last time I need to stay sensible, but I am determined to get better. You have never failed until you no longer try.

Here we are pre-race. Notice the big ugly headband and the fact that I had my jacket off.