Athleta Iron Girl - 5k Race # 2!

My SECOND official race! This one was conveniently located right outside my house at Green Lake. Not gonna lie...this was phenomenal. I was able to wake up early, enjoy the morning without racing around getting ready and then just walk down to the course. Green Lake was SWAMPED! Almost 1500 people in just the 5k....and another 500 or so in the 10k. PLUS there were mother daughter teams signed up.....it was Ridiculous....seriously....ridiculous.

I knew going into this that the course would be swamped. I mean, Green Lake on an average day can be hard to maneuver with strollers, bikers, casual walkers, kids playing around etc. Cram 2000 people on the course and its gonna get sticky. Especially when you put everyone on the outer path which is WAY smaller than the inner path. So given all this I knew that this wasn't going to be a course that I could set any kind of PR on. I was just trying to improve upon the last race. That meant RUNNING the WHOLE. FREAKING. THING! (my first race still bums me out to this day....) And then learning from the mistakes I made. Not jumping into the middle group where I'd be forced to up my pace to get around the walkers...etc....

Well this race I did just that. I waited for everyone to go before I started thinking I'd have some clear room...WRONG. Because the course was much smaller of a path, waiting till the end actually on made it WORSE to dodge people. I spent 90% of the race weaving in and out of the groups of people there. Even after I got out of the huge groups you'd have smaller groups just walking or running 5 people wide. Now I know that some of these people are doing it more for just fun and having conversation while they run or whatever....but on such a tight course it was SLIGHTLY annoying.

Not to mention it was a VERY warm day again. Lucky me. Race day seems to have been the time for Seattle to be gorgeous.

BUT I finished the race without walking and made it in about the same time I did my first race. Still at about 30 minutes with a 9:40/mile pace. No PR, but close! Ranking wise I did pretty well too! I ranked 40th out of 210 in my division (age range 25-29), and 40th out of the 1432 5k participants. That means I was in the top 20% of racers my age and in the top 3% of all 5k participants. Not too shabby right??? For my second race I think NOT! I'm pretty sure though that most people participating were more in it for fun than the actual idea of racing or setting great times. So I take the results with a grain of salt....but then I think I'm PRETTY DAMN AWESOME :)

Sorry...ego boost that I had to give myself right there. :)

Check out the race results and my Athlinks profile at the links below!


Athleta Iron Girl 5k Race Results
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php#racetop

My Athlinks Account
http://www.athlinks.com/racer.aspx?rid=101108156

My First Official 5K Run

This past Saturday was my very FIRST official 5k run of my training program. Now I've WALKED a lot of 5k's before, but this is the first that I've ever run...and definitely the first one since I've started the whole process of training for the half. Needless to say I was slightly nervous. I'd been running a 3 mile distance for the last 2 weeks so as far as distance goes I wasn't concerned, but everyone says that race day is different. The adrenaline and such can throw you off.....well let me tell you they are RIGHT

Race time was at 8:15. I was up by 6 and getting out the door by 7. We arrived in Woodinville at Redhook Brewery by 7:30am. I picked up my race packet, including my bib and tracking chip (I felt SO official! Dorky yes I know but it was COOL! ha). And then I had a good half an hour till race time. Lots of stretching and looking around. It was a much larger race than I had anticipated. There was a 10k portion with about 400 people, a 5k run with 55 runners, and then a 5k walk. Not sure how many walkers but there were a LOT of families and strollers!! The run benefited Seattle Children's Hospital (kinda fitting given the week we'd just gone through).

Starting the race I think I made my number one mistake.....starting with the bulk of the pack. It was VERY crowded, and so I ended up trying to dart up past the crowd and make a break for it. BAD IDEA. My pace to start was most likely WAY to quick. Also - it was a lot warmer out than it had been over the last month or so of my training. I'm not one used to running in heat...or humidity. Makes a big difference. I also learned as I started my run that my iPod had not synced up that morning....meaning the two new songs I'd REALLY wanted to add to my playlist were not there...DAMN

BUT I made it the first two miles without stopping. At a really great pace...but then my tank started to run out. Throughout the third mile I had to stop a few times and do 20 second intervals of walking. Regain some strength and energy. But I finished the full last portion of the race from the last turn on the road to the entrance back to Redhook Brewery, and picked up to a nice sprint to finish it off.

Overall, I finished at 30:05, a pace of 9:41/mile, and placed 19th of 55 runners. Given the fact that I had to walk a portion of the third mile, I'm pretty damn impressed with my timing. Shows just how much I'd set the pace at the beginning. And overall, the race itself was a huge learning experience. Made me fully realize the importance of doing some races before the big day in December.

My next 5k run is on September 11th around Greenlake. So close to home! End goal for this 5k is to run the whole thing and pick up the overall pace time. :-)

I've posted links to the race results as well as my Athlinks account! Given that I'll be running more races I learned about Athlinks from a friend (thanks Ryan), in which I can claim my race results all in one spot :-D

Check it out!

Covey Run 5k Race Results
http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php#racetop

My Athlinks Account
http://www.athlinks.com/racer.aspx?rid=101108156