For this week’s speedwork I opted to run a local 5k. I knew I would be running this race as it is the first of four 5k’s in my running club’s summer series and I plan to run all four but I had intended to run it easy and save my legs for a speed session on Thursday morning – my usual day for speedwork. About six hours before the race I decided that I’d skip the scheduled Thursday speed session and use this 5k as my speedwork for the week instead. (Thanks for your help, Megan!)

There are two things working against you with this 5k. The first obstacle is the time of day. The race starts at 6:30 pm. I am a morning runner and because of that I love the fact that races take place in the morning. Evening races are tough because by that time of the day I am ready to put my feet up, grab a beer and relax. An evening run is not something I’m thinking about at 6:30 pm. I do not have the same energy levels that I do in the morning. Because of all that, racing at this time of the day is hard for me.

The second difficulty with this race is the course. The race takes place in Lehigh Parkway which is probably my most favorite place to run, but it has hills. And in a 5k race, those hills are hard. So, that slows you down by a lot.

I just thought of a third thing working against me – I am trained for a marathon, not a 5k. I have not been doing 5k speedwork (something I hope to do this summer.)

While I did eek out a new PR – just by a little – this was a pretty disappointing performance. But I can’t be too hard on myself since my big race is only 10 days away. First mile was 6:58 but each subsequent mile slowed down by 15 seconds each [m2-7:14, m3-7:30]. My calf muscles were screaming by mile 3. I wish I could have maintained a more even effort, even if that meant a slower time. I kept trying to think of this as a tempo run, I had run a 4 mile tempo run at 7:21 pace in March so why did this hurt? Probably all of the factors above, especially the time of day. Oh, how could I forget … it was 75° outside! Just standing around, the weather was perfect, but racing in those temperatures was not so great. The course is a loop which follows a creek. I wanted to jump in the creek several times during the race.  I remember thinking that 5k’s were so stupid! Yet, I don’t think that running a marathon is idiotic. What’s up with that? I kicked in that final leg of the race (from mile 3 to the finish line) at a 6:35 pace. Take that, 5k! Final time: 22:46. (My watch read 3.16 miles for a 7:13 average pace.)

The only saving grace this evening was the fact that I kept the streak alive by grabbing 1st place for my AG, 40-49.

Splits:
mile 1 – 6:58
mile 2 – 7:14
mile 3 – 7:30
mile 3.1 – 1:02 (6:35 pace)

Official time: 22:47 (7:20 pace)
Overall: 37/143 (25.9%)
Gender: 10/75 (13.3%)
Age group: 1/16 (6.3%)