Valentine's Day 5k 2009

The month of February has certainly been a busy one for yours truly. I had a 5K race on the first. Every night for the rest of the week I had tech rehearsal for my show, "Harvey," at the Parker Mainstreet Theatre. The show opened on Friday the 6th. I ran 16 miles with Runner's Edge of the Rockies on Saturday the 7th, and another performance of "Harvey" that night. Then a pickup rehearsal on the 12th and another show on the 13th, a 10-mile run the morning of the 14th, and then the closing night performance for "Harvey," followed by set-strike and the cast party. And this morning, the Valentine's Day 5K at Washington Park.

Needless to say, I had no expectations of a PR. I told myself I'd be happy finishing in under 27 minutes, but wasn't going to hold myself to that. Sure, I was going to try to push myself; but if I started to fall apart I'd back off and not feel badly about it.

Not helping matters was the freezing temperature at the start of the race (although it was comfortable as long as I was in the sunlight). But after a two mile warmup jog (including some plyometrics), I was feeling much better. I even decided to ditch my jacket and vest for the race (thanks, Steve & Carol for holding on to them for me!).

I started out at a good "comfortably hard" pace that I felt pretty confident I could hold. I stayed sub-8 for the first half of the first mile, and then slowed to sub-8:30 for the rest of it. Oddly, though, I couldn't tell that I was doing that; it felt like I was pushing sub-8 for the entire mile (and I'm getting into the habit of not looking at my Garmin on a 5K--except to make sure it's started)! The second mile was a similar experience: I felt I was going a lot harder than I actually was. I thought I was keeping right around 8-minute pace, but in reality it was closer to 8:20. On the third mile, my perception was closer to the reality, as the entire mile hovered around 8:05 pace and that was about what it felt like. Then, for my last kick, I was able to push up to about 6-minute pace for a nice, strong finish.

(I didn't pick it up as early as I did in my last race, though--I just didn't have enough juice. But I was able to catch up to and then pass a girl I had been pacing for most of the race. Actually, she pulled ahead of me when I slowed at the water stop at about the halfway point; but I caught up to her with about a quarter mile to go and pulled ahead of her at the 3-mile mark.)

Special shout-outs to fellow Runner's Edge members Carol & Steve (cheerleaders and photographer), Tinka and Keri, and Al and pace-group-leader Jen who both ran.

Official time: 25:59
Total races: 3
YTD race miles: 32.5
YTD total miles: 124.5
Hours of sleep the night of Feb 14: 5 (approx)