RR: Warbird 10k Run & 5k Run/Walk (Read 318 times)

This is my first race report so it may be a bit long. This was my first 5k so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got up early so that I could eat some oatmeal, a banana and my usual two cups of coffee. At 8:30 it was still cloudy and I was feeling a bit anxious so I decided to do a short warmup at home. About a minute after I went out it started raining. I arrived at the race about 45 minutes early and was glad that I did since the parking lot was filling up fast and the lines at the registration tent were long. It took me a few minutes to figure out which line to get in for my timing chip. It was about this time that I decided that I need to limit my coffee for the next race. While I was out warming up on the course I noticed that my heart rate was going to be high today. Not that I was nervous or anything. While waiting for the race to start, the clouds cleared away and the sun came out. They had a larger than expected turnout and people were still registering, so the start was delayed about 15 minutes. That meant I had more time to walk around. At about 10:15 they were ready and people started to line up at the start. The race was held in a small industrial park so the start-finish line was on the main road coming into the park and a little bit past it was a large cul-de-sac. I knew I would be one of the slower runners so I lined up at the edge of the circle figuring that the walkers would be further back. Boy was I wrong. Most of the people just bunched up near the start, including a large group of kids that ended up in front of me. After the gun went off I walked to the starting line. Once I crossed it I was able to get enough room to start running. They had marked off one lane of the road we were on, but at the start it was two whole lanes of kids and adults running down the road. I glanced at my Garmin in the first quarter mile to check my pace and was surprised to find that I was averaging 10:30 min/mi. I planned on starting with a 12:30 pace in the first mile, with the hope that I might be able to pick it up in the second half. I briefly thought about slowing down, but I felt good and decided to find out how long I could hold the same pace. The first mile was a bit challenging while I weaved in and out of traffic. It was encouraging since I seemed to be passing a bunch of people. During the second mile I could feel the adrenaline wearing off and was afraid I might start slowing down. We were down to the one lane when we started coming up on cars trying to get through, but by then it wasn’t as crowded. While checking my pace I noticed that my heart rate was getting up near my theoretical max. I had decided I wasn’t going to worry about keeping my heart rate down since I wanted to see if the old 220-age (182) was valid for me. I’d seen my HR hit 165 in training runs and I was already exceeding that by about 10. The wind was at our back on the way out so I new going back was not going to be as easy. I started seeing the elite runners passing in the other direction so I knew the turn around must be close. At the turn around it appeared that I was maintaining the 10:30 pace. I still expected it to drop once I turned into the wind. The third mile is the one that seemed to last the longest. By then I had to concentrate on my breathing. I kept expecting to hit the wall or just pass out on the road. I was constantly checking the Garmin to see how much further I needed to go. Eventually I could see the turn off for the finish and it gave me a good target to focus on. I think I saw my HR read 185 and remember thinking cool I’ve exceeded my max. When I reached the turn off for the finish I could hear people cheering and clapping as others finished. That little bit helped me pick up the pace for the last .10 of a mile. When I crossed the line the timer was showing 33 minutes and change. After crossing the line I headed for the cul-de-sac to start cooling down, but they had volunteers right there collecting the chips. I barely had enough energy left to stand there while they cut it from my shoe. I finally managed to cool off and grabbed a banana and water at the tent. I checked the time on my Garmin and it said 32:23.98. 10 weeks ago I would have never though it possible for me to run a 5k in that time, let alone run the entire distance. Shortly after the last 10k runners finished, they announced the tapping of the first keg. The race bibs served as the tickets for the beer and food so I grabbed some grub and a cold one while waiting for the awards. Later when I downloaded the data to the computer I found that my HR hit a max of 195. Now I need to figure out how to adjust the HR zones on my Garmin. Official time: 33:28 – 10:48 pace Garmin time: 32:23.98 – 10:22 pace