The county I grew up in (and my parents still live in) puts on a 4-part series of 5k races throughout the summer. If you complete at least 3 of the 4 races, you get a t-shirt that says, "I Run This County". I am not sure why, but for some reason, this is very appealing to me this year! The first 5k was in my hometown of Morocco, IN during the annual Homecoming Event. Dustin and I both ran this race, and despite the heat/humidity, finished in a decent time.
I decided to do another one of the races yesterday, June 25, because I wasn't positive I'd be able to attend the other two (one is on the morning of July 4th, and I'm not sure what our plans are yet), and I didn't want to end up only completing 2 of the races and miss out on the shirt. :) The race was in Goodland, IN, where they were having a weekend-long event called the Goodland Grand Prix. The main event is a go kart race, but the festivities last the entire weekend.
The 5k was set to start at 8 am, with registration from 7-7:45. We live about 45 minutes away from Goodland, but we are also in a different time zone, so we had to leave our house at 7:30 (EDT) to be there by 7:15 (CDT). Indiana is a little silly, having different parts of the state in different time zones, ha! I ate my typical breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter and banana, drank some coffee, and we were off. Once we arrived, registration was quick and easy. By the time I pinned on my bib, found a bathroom, and dropped some stuff back at the car, it was time to walk to the start line. I hopped around in place a little bit, but didn't really have much of a chance to warm up. Before I knew it, the race had started!
Mile 1: I tried to focus on slowing down at the beginning, because I always start out way too fast during 5ks. About a half mile into the race, I caught up to two girls who I recognized from previous local races, and realized they were running about the speed that I wanted to be running at. I tucked in behind them and continued on. When my watch beeped that the first mile was complete, I looked down and saw a time of 7:39.
Mile 2: Goodland is a small town, so this race circles around the entire town, and still has to make an extra small loop to get to the 5k distance. :)
I am not very familar with the town, and I had barely glanced at the race map before we started, so I was never sure where we were heading. I think this can be a good thing because it forces you to simply focus on the present, but it also can be a mental struggle because you don't know what to expect. A large majority of Mile 2 is heading south, and we were going straight into the wind, so it was a little exhausting. I started to feel bad about running behind the two girls in front of me, so I tried to pass them, but I couldn't get myself to go any faster, and ended up staying right behind them. This mile finished in 8:19.
Mile 3: Here one of the girls in the duo in front of me pulled ahead. I tried to speed up too, but instead just ended up running next to the other girl for this entire mile. I felt my effort level rising, but my speed was staying exactly the same, which was frustrating. I was starting to feel the heat and the exhaustion from the first 2 miles, but I tried as hard as I could to keep pushing. I ended up with a time very similar to mile 2, 8:21.
Last 0.1: I looked down at my watch when it hit 3 miles, and I was at 24:20. I thought maybe I could break 25 if I sprinted until the end, so I picked it up as much as I possibly could. I did end up with a 7:14 pace for this portion, so I was able to speed up, but it wasn't quite good enough to pass the line under 25. I ended the race at 25:08, good for a PR.
I was definitely happy with my time--it is a PR by 14 seconds (previous PR earlier in the year at 25:22), but I was a little disappointed that I didn't break 25 minutes. I feel like I'm so close to being able to do it! I have a few more 5ks this summer, so hopefully I'll be able to hit sub-25 at one of them. :)
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| Running in for a finish time of 26:00 on the dot |
The 5k was set to start at 8 am, with registration from 7-7:45. We live about 45 minutes away from Goodland, but we are also in a different time zone, so we had to leave our house at 7:30 (EDT) to be there by 7:15 (CDT). Indiana is a little silly, having different parts of the state in different time zones, ha! I ate my typical breakfast of oatmeal with peanut butter and banana, drank some coffee, and we were off. Once we arrived, registration was quick and easy. By the time I pinned on my bib, found a bathroom, and dropped some stuff back at the car, it was time to walk to the start line. I hopped around in place a little bit, but didn't really have much of a chance to warm up. Before I knew it, the race had started!
Mile 1: I tried to focus on slowing down at the beginning, because I always start out way too fast during 5ks. About a half mile into the race, I caught up to two girls who I recognized from previous local races, and realized they were running about the speed that I wanted to be running at. I tucked in behind them and continued on. When my watch beeped that the first mile was complete, I looked down and saw a time of 7:39.
Mile 2: Goodland is a small town, so this race circles around the entire town, and still has to make an extra small loop to get to the 5k distance. :)
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| Follow dark arrows first, then the light arrows to finish the 5k |
Mile 3: Here one of the girls in the duo in front of me pulled ahead. I tried to speed up too, but instead just ended up running next to the other girl for this entire mile. I felt my effort level rising, but my speed was staying exactly the same, which was frustrating. I was starting to feel the heat and the exhaustion from the first 2 miles, but I tried as hard as I could to keep pushing. I ended up with a time very similar to mile 2, 8:21.
Last 0.1: I looked down at my watch when it hit 3 miles, and I was at 24:20. I thought maybe I could break 25 if I sprinted until the end, so I picked it up as much as I possibly could. I did end up with a 7:14 pace for this portion, so I was able to speed up, but it wasn't quite good enough to pass the line under 25. I ended the race at 25:08, good for a PR.
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| My splits for the race |
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| Post race photo |
Have you PRed any races this year?
Do you have any local series races that you participate in?
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