Notes
Welp, apparently I had nothing to worry about. I had just been feeling absolutely exhausted and drained this whole week, and I definitely was not as pumped to race as I normally am. Running just feels 1000x harder than it used to, but I had to realize that that was not an excuse not to race because racing is supposed to feel hard regardless. I’ve never been the person to cop out of a race because of sickness or tiredness, or simply just not “feeling it”; that’s just not how I roll, I’m no bitchy baby! When opportunity knocks, you open the door! Be that as it may, I was going into this race without any confidence or feeling of preparedness. I wasn’t really negative, but more so didn’t know what to expect. The original race plan was to go out with Anna and shoot for 18:15 pace, which is basically my PR. We ended up getting out a little hot and eventually caught up with Nat and Lexi, who were shooting for 17:45 pace. Natalie made a move, and I figured that I might as well go with her since we had already grouped up with them and I was feeling good. I basically ran the rest of the race with her, which I loved because we work really well together. Thoroughly enjoyed jamming out to the playlist too #mayhavedancedalittletofireburning. Fell a little behind the last K, which always happens. I think in cross, it truly was because I wasn’t physically there yet to hang on due to my low mileage. Now, I think it is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy that I have manifested in my head. Definitely something to work on for next time. A little bittersweet being close to breaking 18, but still pleasantly surprised with a PR. Overall, satisfied with this considering I am still not 100% from having covid, first time even running on the indoor track since last year, and it was like the least confident I’ve ever been. I cannot wait to see what I can do once I am back to my old self and feeling stronger. My offseason training was pretty solid (up until the end at least lol) and I know I am ready for some big time drops. I walked into this race without any confidence, and am leaving with quite a bit of confidence, because now I know I can still kick ass no matter what is going on. I have gotten to the point where I feel like nothing really phases me running-wise anymore (coming back from injuries, sickness, mental health probs, etc) and I think it is a very useful asset to have because there will always be some sort of adversity in life.
P.S. even better than the 6 second 5k PR was the 11 second 3k PR I had within the race (Previous 3k PR: 10:59; Ran a 10:48 in the first 3k of this 5k LOL).