Chili Bowl 5K Race Report

I decided to look back at some of my high school splits before I confirmed my pleasure in running a pretty even split race today. It turns out I was right and today was the first race I ever came close to running even splits. WooHoo. That's the kind of progress I can get behind. Now I just have to work to make those splits oh about 40 seconds faster ;)



As you can see my coach Freshman and Junior year kept a very detailed log. My Junior and Senior year we were stuck with just our time but I am fairly confident I ran all of those races in a similar manner to my previous two years, just a bit more slowly. I can't find my 98 results at all but I think they were fairly similar to the year before. College I broke 22 about twice so I live with the fact that I don't have the results, it's like they never happened! (Although I do wish someone would have told me that when I was an old runner I would have liked to have all those splits, I never kept a log in high school or college, and I wish I could look back at what I was doing then now, oh well!)

It was cold out this morning. When I left it was 12 degrees, with the windchill it felt like 0 F. Perfect running weather!

I got to the race early and registered than sat around until about 9 and headed out with some friends for a 20 minute warm up. Daisy Duc, Solar Squirrel & T, and one of my CTC buddies joined me. It started to snow like mad on our way back in, just enough to cover the road with a nice slippery coating. Picked up Dr. Louis a few minutes before the start then headed in for the pre race huddle. The race started a bit late so we stood around a few more minutes than I would have liked, but what are you going to do?

I went back and forth on my race plan but decided I wanted to aim for 7 minute pace and hopefully run with Daisy Duc and Solar Squirrel, then kick it in the last .1 to try and sneak in under 21:37 to get Daisy Duc a PR. FIRST had a 3 mile tempo run at 7:03 pace for me this week so I figured this was a good way to get that in and practice running a 5K where I don't go out 30-60 seconds too fast in the first mile.

Well we took off and Daisy Duc was hustling! I decided to reel it in and Solar Squirrel and I fell into a comfortably hard pace and watched as Daisy glided away. I was worried about being too slow but we came around the first corner and hit the first mile right on at 7:00. I was glad and felt like this was doable, maybe I could even pick it up the third mile. The second mile of this race always feels slow to me but I forced myself not to look at the watch today, except at the mile markers, and the 2nd mile I felt surprisingly strong, so I was a bit disappointed to come through that one at 7:14. After the second mile I started picking off a few runners. Passed two girls and got passed by one. Better than getting passed by 2 I guess :) It was windy in the last mile and there is an out and back that requires a pivot turn which I was not graceful or quick at. We got back to the Country Club drive and I hit mile 3 in 7:00. I knew last year the .1 was long so I figured I should hold back on my kick a bit but I erred. The .1 was right on this year and I didn't quite get enough time to reel back in the girl who had passed me. I crossed the mat at 21:57 (Official time 21:53.10, 7:04 pace) My stomach was not happy at all and I was sure I was going to lose my breakfast. But of course within a minute I felt fine and was peeved I hadn't run harder. Ces't la vie.

Chatted with BWhit and cheered for Solar Squirrel who was right on my tail then congratulated Daisy Duc on her PR. She crushed the course today in 20:45 and won our age group. I was so impressed. A PR by almost a minute for her. Go over to her blog and tell her great job!

I headed out for my cool down and caught my friend B and we chatted. She had her Garmin on and it turns out the second mile was about .1 long so I was closer to even splits than I thought!

It was definitely humbling this year not getting an age group award, and I can't deny being a bit disappointed. But I ran the race I said I was going to and I broke 22 which was my stated goal. Sometimes running a blazing fast race just isn't in the cards, and perhaps you have to slow down a bit before you can build back to the speedster you want to be.

On super positive notes, after the race my legs felt great. I felt like I could have kept up the same pace for another 5K, which is awesome. I did a 20 minute easy cool down and felt like if I wanted to I could have kept going all day. I now know where I am at and I know what I want to work towards. I feel fitter than I have felt in a long time. I feel tone and flexible and am completely happy with my body (women you know how fleeting that feeling can be!) for the first time in a long time. And who can complain about that?

Check in on some of the other bloggers who toughed the cold today (This is to make sure they actually get up those race reports soon, even if they don't though stop by and tell them great job)! Mike, BWhit, DaisyDuc, B, Charlie


Fogged up post race photo. Note to self, don't leave camera in the car when it is below freezing and expect good pics!
More Pics to come in the weekly Run Down!