On Sunday, May 5, 2013 I ran the CAMBA Healthy Way 5K—put on by the organization NYC Runs and presented by EmblemHealth—in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. CAMBA is a non-profit organization that provides a wide range of services for people in Brooklyn who are homeless, impoverished, mentally ill, and/or HIV positive with many outreach programs, shelters, ect.

Short Version: 28:42. 11 seconds short of a new PR. Apparently I suck at stopping my Garmin on time. Official time: 28:16... a new PR

Overall: 50/151 (whoa! I have always wanted to be in the top 50%....top 1/3 I will DEFINITELY take!!!)

Females: 16/95 (OMG!)

AG (20-29 F): The race didn't give AG rankings but it was small enough to easily count myself. 7/21

Goals:

A) PR (28:31)

B) Get another sub-30 time (the 28:31 has been my only sub-30 so far. This would be my 6^th 5K in 7 months and my previous times have been 37:07, 33:33, 32:30, 28:31, and 32:23)

C) Have fun

Race Plan: I was really hoping for a better execution in terms of pacing for this race than previous races. I tend to run my first mile too fast. Always. In training runs too, even, but especially in races. My PR race on 4/6 I went out like a crazy person and my first mile split was 8:58. My second mile was 9:45. Even though I was really proud of my finishing time and effort, I knew my pacing needed work, so that was one of my major goals today. I promised myself that I would try to keep the first mile around 9:20 and then evaluate from there if I could pick it up a bit, in order to prevent another big fade. Also, I know the park the race is in well, and looking at the starting point of the race I know the major hill in the park (which used to seem a lot more “major” to me, but seems to get easier each time I run it!) was going to be in the first mile—and take up most of the first mile. From then on most of the loop is pretty flat with a decent downhill at the end of mile 2/beginning of mile 3. So I knew that going out like a crazy person right away on the only significant uphill would be a bad idea.

Also, I really needed to do a 6 mile long run today to get ready for my 10K in 2 weeks, and I was running this race as part of it. So I was running 3 additional miles before/after the race. Originally I planned on a 2 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down to bookend the 5K at recovery pace. Ended up flip-flopping them because I just didn’t have enough time before the race….so I did 1 mile pre-race and 2 miles post.

Pre-Race:  Woke up at 6:00. Used the heating pad on calves and hips. Went to make my pre-race breakfast of some toasted bread product (today it was an English muffin) with peanut butter and sliced banana on top and OH NO discovered I was out of PB and hadn’t realized! So I improvised with what I had and melted cheddar cheese on top, and ate the banana on the side. Had coffee, water, and Gatorade slowly as I ate and got ready. Start temperature for the race was supposed to be 50 degrees and sunny (perfect PERFECT race weather!) so I chose short sleeved tech shirt, Sparkle Skirt, calf compression sleeves, and finally debuted my new racing shoes—Mizuno Wave Elixirs. Headed off to Prospect Park by subway. Got there at about 8:15 for a 9:00am start. Porta potty first. Got my bib and swag, checked my bag, took a picture, did a walk/jog warm-up, stretched, used the porta potty again, then ran my planned pre-race mile. Finished just in time to use the porta potty one last time (yeah I’m neurotic about peeing as many times as humanly possible), then it was just about time to line up.

Before walking over to the start:

The Race:

Mile 1: As I knew and expected, mostly uphill (started flat, ended flat, with about .6 miles of uphill in between). I looked at my Garmin more during the first mile today than I ever have during a race, but I really wanted to control my pace. And I did a really good job of that…I was putting out for sure a race effort, but I wasn’t trying to kill it up the hill and waste all my energy. I was hoping to finish the first mile in about 9:20. Finally, I learned not to go out like a crazy person and pace myself appropriately….because look at this thing of beauty— Mile 1: 9:21

Mile 2: I tried to will my legs to go a bit faster here. It was mostly flat, with a bit of a downhill starting towards the end of the mile. My allergies got really bad here (they’ve been bad all week but were better yesterday/before the race), and breathing was difficult. I could not breathe through my nose as it was running like a faucet. I was starting to wonder if this was about to be the beginning of the end for me, but I kept pushing as hard as I could and ended up being ok. And look at this, no huge 2^nd mile fade this time!— Mile 2: 9:19

Mile 3: Beginning of the mile was a little downhill and I was trying to use it to my advantage. However, I got a crazy side stitch during it. This doesn’t usually doesn’t happen to me….so I was trying to remember tips I’ve seen on RA and RWOL…I lifted my hands over my head, dug my hand into my side for a little, kept just trying to breathe through it, and it went away fairly quickly. Phew. But I was really feeling the effort of the race about .4 into this mile and was trying to drop the hammer but was struggling. I entered the pain cave, dug deep, and tried to find the strength to keep pushing. I stopped looking at my Garmin altogether and just pushed and pushed telling myself it was almost over, and to SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP! Mile 3: 9:14

Last .1: Woohoo this course was actually 3.1 and not 3.03 like my Garmin measured my PR course!! This .1 mile was the hardest .1 mile I have ran to date. I somehow mustered a finish line sprint. Last .1: .49 (7:45 pace)

And then I crossed the finish line and did something embarrassing…something I am always tempted to do after I finish an all-out effort race but up until this point have managed to have self-control…. I freaking laid down in the grass! I walked about 10 feet past the finish line, walked off the path and just collapsed on the grass trying to catch my breath. Then I got up, got a drink of water, and somehow ran 2 more miles. At a recovery pace, and the slow end of recovery pace, but somehow I did it.

Garmin Time: 28:42.6. The official time is not up on the website yet, but I’m impatient so I wrote the RR anyway. I can’t imagine it will be much different though, maybe a second or 2 faster. But according to the Garmin, this race was 11 damn seconds slower than my PR!

UPDATE: OFFICIAL TIME: 28:16! I actually DID PR and spent 30 hours not knowing it. I was pretty out of it when I crossed the finish line (I mean I laid down on the friggin grass for crying out loud!) so I suppose it is possible that I didn't stop the Garmin for over 20 seconds and didn't realize it. Oh well, doesn't matter anymore...all that matters is I PRed!

Post Race Thoughts: At first I was so sad about running that hard and not getting a PR. But then I thought about a few things. A) My PR course measured .07 miles short, so really this race I actually ran faster even though I finished 11 seconds slower. B) My PR course was flat as a pancake, this one wasn’t particularly challenging but definitely more so than my PR course. C) My PR race wasn’t a total fluke. After the less than stellar 32:23 5K I had 2 weeks ago, I was wondering if the 28:31 was some stars aligning fluke and not indicative of my true fitness. That fear has been put to bed. D) I paced this race awesomely. If that is even a word. I ran each mile a little faster than the last, which is something I generally do NOT do. So lots of positive takeaways here!   Awesomesauce.

Geese and swans on the lake in the park that I stopped to say hello to on my walk back to the subway post-race:

Swag: Since EmblemHEalth was the sponsor they gave each participant an EmblemHelath bag and water bottle in addition to the race shirt. Nice!

Now….on to my May 19^th 10K. Which is my goal race for the Spring. 2 weeks eeeeeee!

Thanks for reading.

You really did do an awesome job with the pacing.  Congratulations.

Congrats on some pretty splits and another sub 30 !

Great job, Kristin!

Great job, Kristin!   LOL@ finishing by lying down, but at least you finished, and then ran 2 more miles!  How funny and cool is that!  Glad you took so many positives away from this race!

Great job!  With all the racing you have been doing, you'll find that some races will be PR misses but I like the fact that you're racing this much and getting this much experience while still having fun.

Great race and RR, Kristin. I appreciate your hard work and effort. Seriously, you keep me motivated!

Thanks guys!!!! I was very happy with this race, once I got over the sting of just missing the PR.

I still don't know my official time by the way. There is a glitch in the website and the results don't show up even though it says they're up. GRRRRR. I emailed the RD, he said they're having technical difficulties and to check back in a few days. I'm pretty confident the official results are going to show though that I missed my PR by probably 8 or 9  seconds, or else I'd be on pins and needles waiting!!!