No pressure: SEFCU 5K race report.

It was an early wake-up call for a Labor Day. Not crack-of-dawn early, by any means, but early for a holiday. I didn't mind. I had a race to run and I was excited!

I started off as I always do before a race; with a cup of coffee and some peanut butter on bread. I drank some water, rolled out my legs and headed to the race around 8.

The SEFCU Labor Day 5K is a small race, with about 500 people participating, but it is a solid, well-organized one (this was the 21st year) and it always raises money for a good cause. For the past few years, the race has raised funds for Gilda's Club. This year it raised $20,000. That's a lot of dough in tough economic times!

Since it is a small race, I was able to easily spot a friend and her daughter and we hung out a bit before the race. We also connected after the race, which was a nice treat. No pics, unfortunately.

Anyway, let's talk about the race. As I mentioned in my last post, I'd been debating how to run this. I put the race on my training schedule as a tune-up and just wasn't sure how to handle that. As I was driving to the race, I decided I would try to do two things: 1) run at a consistent pace about 20 seconds per mile slower than goal race pace (since I'm usually terrible at consistent pacing) and 2) work on 2:2 breathing*.

OK. Good plan. I would run 7:45 miles and get into a good rhythm with my breath.

Good plan, sure, but I didn't stick to it exactly. I started off, as usual, too fast. I ran the first mile in 7:29 and then the second in 7:35. I then petered out and ran the third mile in 8:08 and finished in 24:25 (Garmin calculated that I ran 3.26 miles, rather than the 3.1 -- does that happen to other Garmn users often?). My overall pace was 7:53 but note that none of the miles were run at the correct pace. Ugh! Something to work on . . .

My breathing, however, was excellent. After the first quarter mile or so, I fell into the 2:2 rhythm. I maintained that comfortable rhythm throughout the race and never felt like my breathing was labored, even during the third mile, which was almost all an incline.

Even though I slowed in the final mile, I felt strong when I finished. I almost felt like I was holding back too much in the third mile and then never did anything at the end with the energy I had conserved.

And that's OK. I didn't want to run too hard and have to miss any of my planned runs for this week. My legs feel great post-race so I'm ready to get back to work this afternoon! Granted, I only have an easy run on the schedule but I'm looking forward to it.

The best part of the race was just getting back to the business of participating in a race. Before yesterday, I hadn't run a race since June. I needed the energy boost that you only get from being with a large group of runners, all trying to do their best.

Speaking of trying to do my best . . . here is week 3 of my training plan:

Mon: 5K tune-up race (done! ran 4.9 total)
Tues: easy 4m
Wed: 1.5 mile warm-up; 4 x 400 @ 1:45; 4 x 200 @ :45; 1 mile cool-down (total: 5.5)
Thurs: easy 4m
Fri: rest
Sat: 4m fartlek
Sun: easy 5m

Total miles: 27.5

Looks like a good week to me. I hope it goes well.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

~ Felice

* Breathing in for two footsteps and out for two footsteps.