Nov 10th 5K Race Report

Leading up to this race Hurricane Sandy gave me a week off of running.  I figured I was due and running in the rain plus cold just didn't sound like fun.  The next week before the race I only did 2 3 mile runs at an easy pace and my entire family had a little stomach bug.  This was a last minute decision to run this race.  The race was the 8th Annual LCPL Taylor B. Prazynski Memorial 5K Run, Walk, and Roll.  The race was up in Fairfield, Ohio which is about 45-50 mins away from me.  Buddy of mine who was coming up from NC, plus his brothers, and a few others were going to run this race.  Taylor was a local soldier who died in Iraq in 2005.  His mother moved next door in 2006 to my buddy who was coming up from NC.  Also, none of these folks have seen me since I lost my 120+ lbs.  I figured it was for a great cause and I also got to see some friends I haven't seen in a while.  

Ended up being a terrific day to run.  Got there early, signed in, and got a little warm up in jogging back to my car to put my packet in it.  Since I've been off basically the past couple weeks I didn't expect anything special today.  My last 5K in Aug was 36:58 so I figured anything under 35 mins I would be pleased.  I was a little worried the stomach bug would rear its ugly head but only time would tell.  Before we started, someone sang the national anthem with military color guard.  Great way to start any race, especially on Veterans Day weekend.  I had no idea where I was so every turn on the course was new to me.  Mile marker 1 passed and I hear 9:xx something.  I didn't start at the front so I know I just went out WAY to fast.  About 1.25-1.5 miles in the stomach bug shows up.  I was getting that, "uh oh!" feeling so I slowed down a bit.  2 miles in I heard 20:19 and was still surprised since I slowed down.  Mile 3 was 31:xx and so I picked it back up for a decent finish.  I figured the finish line wasn't far from the bathroom, so if I needed to I could just keep running till I made it. lol  

Crossed the line in 33:08!  It was really odd because I felt horrible during the race and just thought I probably blew a PR chance.  In fact I did the absolute opposite.  I set a 1 mile PR with 9:22, a 2 mile PR with 19:55 and a 5K PR with a 33:08.  First thing I thought was, "wonder what I could have done if I felt good?"  While I felt it was a bad race I really learned a lot.  My new slow down pace during a 5K is 7-8 mins faster then my fast time from 4 months ago.  Aug 37 min time was all out so I am extremely pleased with how far I have come.  Was nice to race with some friends that have never seen me run other then down pit road (all of these guys were from the old race team I worked on).  33 min 5K tells me my goal of a sub 30 is very possible.  Hopefully I can get some running in during the winter and come spring time hit that goal.  What I thought was a bad race, turned into a great day with friends.