Well crud! That was one hell of a cold morning 5K! Luke and I ran in the Arthritis Foundation Jingle Bell 5K this morning. The temperatures were 2 or 3 degreees, and I would have stayed home in bed except that the race was being organized by a dear friend from my church. So Luke and I headed off with multiple layers of clothing in hopes of surviving the crazy low temperature 5K.
The good news was that the race before and after activities were indoors. I was dreading the thought of a porta potty visit in 3 degrees, but there were very nice indoor bathrooms, plenty of coffee and hot cocoa, bagels, etc.
The bad news was that it was still freaking cold for the 5K itself. Luke had a lot of trouble with the cold. He doesn't admit it that it happened this way, but I'm pretty sure that he went out way too fast because he was cold. He ended up having to take some significant walk breaks during the first mile, and he was very discouraged. When I saw him at a turnaround area when he was only about a third of a mile left, and he looked like he was crying. I think there were plenty of people who felt bad for him. The good news for him though is that he still took 1st place in his age group even though his finish time (27:07) was his slowest so far. He took home a pretty nice medal, and hopefully he learned something about himself and his abilities today.
The bad news for me was that I went out too fast too. I had a lot of trouble with the cold too, so my first mile was my fastest ever. I ended up needing two short walk breaks during mile 2 and mile 3. The good news is that the walk breaks really were very short, and there was a runner during the last half mile who was a perfect pace for me to keep pushing myself to finish, but not to push me beyond my limits. There was a big hill at the end, and she even inspired me to push myself through that hill without stopping for a 3rd walk break.
The really good news is that I had a very nice PR of 33:13! That's a very big improvement over my prior race personal record, and it's also better than my prior personal best (non-race, Garmin recorded speed). I'm really really really happy with that. Not just because it was a personal record, but it was also better than the so-called 5K time I had from the Boomtown 5K back in August 2012 (33:44) - but that was a short course of only 3.0 miles. It was hard to not want to hold onto that 5K time even though I knew in my heart that it wasn't real. Now I have a better PR, and I know that it really is real! What a great way to finish out my 2013 race schedule!!!
Later post: WooHoo!!! It turns out that the 33:13 was the gun time and that my chip time was actually 32:26! I'm loving this PR!!!
Later post: 2013 results
# of runs = 164
# of ST/C/Y workouts = 46
# of other cardio = 33
# of miles = 675
# of races = 8
PRs:
HM 2:39:48
20K 2:33:47
10K 1:18:11 (was actually 6.7 miles)
5K 32:26
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