Background: I got myself a shiny new PR on October 11 at my club's annual 5K after a summer of pool-running with a broken big toe and I was super happy about that, but figured I could do better with several more weeks of consistent mileage under my belt. I've been running 6 days/week, sometimes 7, have done a couple track workouts, one impromptu ultramarathon, a weekly medium-long and long run, and a couple of progression runs down to about goal HM pace. Strides 2x/week during easy runs. Running more hills than usual but fewer than I should be tackling.

Warmup: I felt kind of like junk. Not unsurprising given my miles at the beginning of the week: 2 days with a short double in the afternoon, a 9 mile MLR, a 13.1 mile LR. No other workout, but the volume was a lot more than I've been doing. The smartest way to go for a 5K PR, really. :P I ran 2 easy-but-also-really-shitty-feeling miles in trainers, switched to flats, did a couple of halfhearted dynamic stretches and roughly 6 hard strides in an effort to wake up my legs. Lined up, there were way too many people wedging their way ahead of me who didn't belong there. Shit, man.

Mile 1: Lots of weaving the first quarter mile or so (shoutout to the little redhead kid who insisted on lining up in front with his whole family, even though the family tried to convince him that they should move back), all clear after that. Thinking about how much 5Ks suck before I even got to the first mile marker, but I didn't feel too overly horrific at that point. Passed by the timers, someone else asked for a split and they said 6:56. MOTHERFUCKING WHAT? That's my fastest mile ever! Garmin says 6:59.

Mile 2: Racing with a girl in geometric capris kept me going through this mile. I caught up to her, she passed me back, I thought I might catch her on a slight incline but nope, she powered up that thing better than I did! Thanks for keeping me going, geometric capris girl! (I actually saw her and thanked her for pushing me through the second mile after the race too, lol). Through mile 2 in 14:00 according to timers, 7:03 split from Garmin.

Mile 3: Big slowdown, I let myself take a little breather right at the start of this mile and tried to get back up to speed but it just wasn't happening. Lots of wheezing, lots of motivating self-talk: "less than 7 more minutes now! And even if you die that's okay!" Geometric capris was opening a gap on me, I still had her in my sight and she wasn't all that far off, but I knew there was no way my lead legs were going to catch her today. I was still on track for a solid PR so that was fine with me. Saw one of my coaches just before the 3 mile mark, told me to keep pushing! I wheezed "I WILL!". I never manage to look at my 3 mile split, I'm too busy trying not to die by that point, but Garmin tells me after the fact that it was 7:15. Ouch. I turned the corner to the finish, crossed a timing mat, kinda slowed down. My brain didn't really register that the 5K finish mat was further ahead until I stopped right in front of it. Oh shit, that first mat was the 1.5 mile finish! Walked my stupid ass across the line for an official time of 22:10. 6:46 pace for the last 0.13, slower than my usual kick but confirms that my slowdown/stop wasn't quite as dramatic as I thought.

I was SUPER disappointed immediately after, when I thought the stop had cost me sub-22, but once the official (chip) times were posted I felt much better. There's no way I lost a full 10 seconds between the two mats - would have been probably 2-3 seconds faster at most, even though it felt like an eternity while it was happening.

Still a solid 30 second PR, 3rd AG F20-29 (and the overall female winner wasn't in my AG this time around, so I really was 3rd fastest!), and a valuable lesson in timing mats (when in doubt, KEEP RUNNING HARD)!

Background: one impromptu ultramarathon

This made me laugh.  NBD.

Nice race, though!  Congrats on the PR.

Nice PR. That sounds about normal for a 5k to have people who should not be up front insisting on it.

As far as splits, I think it highly depends on what type of course you run. If it's totally flat, maybe you can make the last mile fastest, but if you are dealing with any sort of hills (of any size) that is going to have an effect on your pace. FWIW, my fastest 5ks typically have mile 1 the fastest, mile 2 slowest and mile 3 in the middle with a kick.

Congratulations on the PR and the AG placement. It sounds like you gave it all you had, and that's all you can ask.

If you stole my wallet, I could not chase you down.  I don't know why that thought popped into my head.

lol - that was funny!

Speedy! Nice job!

The week of 30 second PR's!  Great job, Lauren!  Yeah, unless you actually stopped moving and just stood there between the mats, that probably only cost you a second or two.  So congrats on the PR and the sub-7:00 mile!

Thanks everyone!!