August 4th 5K Race Report

After having great success with my first 5K, I thought I would torture myself with another. It’s been exactly 1 month from my last 5K. I wogged that one in 41:26 with my goal for that day being under 44:00 mins. I am 12 lbs lighter today vs previous race (total of 107 lbs now) and the temp was 15 deg cooler. My main goal for the day was to break the 40 min mark with a secondary goal of just setting a PR. My 13 yr old nephew was also doing the race with me. It’s his first 5K and it's at his school. He is trying out for the cross country team there so no added pressure. Right? lol

Unlike the 4th of July race where there were over 700 people this race had at most 200 folks. Made the start a tic easier especially since the race director told the walkers to GET IN THE BACK! Not all of them listened. I knew I needed to start with a faster pace than normal to hit that sub 40 min goal. First ½ mile was fairly flat with a small rolling hill to a turn. So far so good, then I made the turn. I know the route but I’ve always been in a car on this road. Oddly enough I never noticed how big the hills were while in the car. When I turned the corner, I found out.

It was rolling hills till you hit a side street to come back around. I didn’t plan on these hills but at the 2 mile marker was 23:xx. I looked back and saw the hills were harder on my nephew. He wasn’t too far behind me but not that close either. I thought for sure I would be cutting it close but it was nice to see I had a little bit of wiggle room. The last big hill I’m fairly sure was either 12 miles long or a ¼. I’m not 100% sure since it seemed like it was never going to end. Once finally on top of Mount Kilimanjaro, right turn to a decent downhill and .6 miles to go.

At this point I realize I started off to strong and the hills took more out of me then I realized. Walking isn’t an option especially since my nephew is behind me. Plus when I made the last turn into the school parking lot, I knew there were 6-8 family members watching. I made the last turn and now ballpark 200 yards to the finish. The hills plus trying to keep a pace I haven’t done before took everything out of me. I made an attempt to pick up the pace but it didn’t last long. About 30 yards left I come up on my family. My 3 year old runs up and starts to jog along side of me. He wanted to race with daddy! He finished the race with me (pic below).

I crossed the line and stopped my HRM at 37:06! Holy crap! I was going to be happy if the clock said 39:59. 40 min goal crushed and a new PR to boot. My official time was 36:58 and my nephew finished at 37:50 (we are all really proud of you JAW 3.0). To say I was pleased with the race today would be an understatement. Beat my old PR by 4:28 and if Map My Run would have worked right, probably would have set a new 1 mile time. My average pace was 11:56, which to me is amazing. Today results were better than I expected. I keep showing myself that I can go above and beyond what I think I can do. I was 100% spent afterwards. To celebrate my good day, I took a much needed nap.

Another great finish side by side with my son...