RACE REPORT: Swamp Rabbit 5K

An unexpectedly nice ending to a day I thought was gonna be a wash.

[Some of my blogging habits don't lend to good reading, but I guess I just like to give a quick summary before diving into the minute and odd details I usually focus on. Gives you a chance to decide whether or not you want to bother reading on, I guess.]

I didn't think yesterday's bike intervals were going to do too much damage, but I was a tiny bit sore today at work, and not the feels good kind of soreness that comes a few days' rest after a hard workout, but the fresh soreness. I was like, oh, too bad. Oh well, today's race is a wash anyways b/c of the heat (84 degrees... better than the 89 then 86 originally predicted), and I'll know better next time. Since I've biked maybe just once per month this year, and since I've never tried bike intervals before, I didn't know how I'd feel the next day.

Ok, really not that impressive. I was just lucky the way age groups go. Surprisingly, the 20-29 age group is slow for the women. The two 5K's I ran preiously were part of the corporate sheild, where they only have 3 age groups to cover everyone. It turns out that the women who always soundly beat me are in their 40's!!! All 6 age group winners from the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups beat me. So I just got lucky w/ age groupings. Maybe I'll do more non-corp sheild races.

At work, I decided to wear OxySox. I know some people wear them at work or on long plane rides, to aid in circulation. I figured it would perhaps prime me for a better run. Usually, you don't wanna try anything new on race day, but it seems innocent enough.

Left work at 4:15, and good thing, since it took ridiculously long to get there... an hour! On top of my usual 30ish min commute + walk to the office, plus driving back. As I left the office and felt the blast of heat as I went outside, I even considered just scrapping the race. Too hot. Makes me feel queasy. How will I run in this? But I had been keeping this race as something to look forward to all week, and as a way to keep up some motivation and intensity with my training during the summer months.

Finally went through traffic and got there. Made me appreciate my 20ish min, one-way drive w/ minimal traffic. The long drive made me kinda impatient, so I was not in a good mood. Then, I had to park on a baseball field, which involved driving thorugh a little ditch, and I don't like to hurt my car or drive through tight or risky spaces, since I'm not a good driver. Anyway, I got my number. Between the bathrom break and putting on my number, I was sad to see that they had missed the fact that I was on my company's team. That would mean that I wouldn't be scoring us points, sad. A while later, though, I realized that it had me down as age 34! So they gave me the wrong bib, for someone w/ the same name! I hoped that the other me didn't already take my real number. It would mess things up, to have our timings switched. I was riled up and sprinted back to the number pickups... great thing to do before a race, I'm sure, haha. Anyway, my real number was still there, and I made the switch, no harm done.

A good strategy for a hot day - I splashed my upper body with water a couple of times, and it did a lot to cool me down. It all dried surprisingly quickly, but along with the water, heat got removed. I did the usual warmup, dynamic stretching, strides, a bit more regular slow running than usual. With my legs still a bit leady from yesterday's intervals, I needed to get them moving to feel fresh again, but it was so hot, that my HR would get up really quickly, and things just weren't looking good.

It was time to line up fo the race. I was happy to see lineups by pace. There was 6-7 min/mi, 7-9, then something else... 9 it must be. 7-9 is pretty wide, I thought. And my usual race pace is 7:00, so where to go.... I was going to go somewhere between the two. Surprisingly, there was chip timing for this race, although it's a new kind of chip... not a platic chip, not a D-ring for your shoe, but a foam stick on the back of your race number. Interesting. Anyway, chip timng doesn't help much if there are slower people in front of you that you need to dodge. That distance and that forcible slowing down adds up and can be pretty frustrating. I was pretty close to the start, in my opinion. Maybe 35 feet behind?

But once the race started, I regretted not starting closer. Oh man, totally stuffed for the first quarter. Even pretty much stopped to go around some people. It was sooo bad, and I don't think there was anyone in the first quarter mile that was anywhere near 7/mi. It got better after that, though. I was going under pace for a while (6:45ish... my goal-goal time on good weather days). Then, the hills came... hills that have no business being in a race as short as a 5K. There were maybe 3 ups and downs, pretty steep. Not a fast course. Skipped the water at the first mile marker to not waste time. But wanted water at the 1.5 and got some there. Some more at the 2 mile marker, and splashed a lot on my face. That last mile was on the new Swamp Rabbit trail and was flat with a little downhill at the end. It was just a matter of hanging on. I was struggling, and while those first 2 miles flew by fairly quickly, this last one dragged on. I drafted off another girl for a while and hoped to beat two other HS-age ones right in front of me eventually, but just hanging on would be tough. I passed the girl I was drafting off of, then she cauht me again. Finally, the last 0.1 came, and I turned on the after burners.

I think I was a little more hyperventillating than usual in the finish chute today, prob b/c of the heat. Anyway, dropped off my foam chip, got 3 dixie cups of water, enjoyed a mistng hose that someone was spraying, and had an apple then a banana. I stretched a bit and walked around. The lines after a while got really long, and I realized how nice it is to finish early. Didn't have to wait in line for long.

Watched and cheered a little at the finish after a while. Then, as the 1-hr mark hit, I headed over to the "block party"... more like a post-race tent section w/ hotdogs and chips and live music. Didn't partake in the hotdogs. Got a Chick-fil-a cow, which made me happy. I hung around for awhile, just walking around and being around people. It was kind of nice, not having pressures of getting on with the rest of my day as if it was a Saturday. Since it was a Friday night, I could just enjoy being off of work and linger.

I ended up lingering for a while and figured that at some point, they must be planning on announcing the awards. The sun was setting, and I had no idea what time it was, but they said that awards would be at 8:30, just 10 min away. Watched lots of little kids enjoying free frisbees promoting the new trail. I never had a chance at awards in previous races, but I thought I'd stick around anyways and support the corporate shield races and runners, and there's always that hope that you have of somehow getting something. I laughed at myself when I thought of that hope and figured that maybe after a year of racing in my new town, that I'd eventually give up.

They had awards for little kids, and a 10 and under boy finished in 18-something... in this heat!!! For real? That boy's gonna get recruited like crazy. The fastest woman overall was 19-something. Not a chance. The awards were a railroad spike from the Swamp Rabbit railroad that used to be where the trail is now, or something like that... supposed to be 120 yrs old. Also coffee you could redeem if you went to the coffee shop. Age groups kept going by, and then for 20-29 women, 3rd... my name! I was so surprised and worrying the whole time I was up there that it was the wrong me and that the real one would show up and be like what's your deal. But no such thing, happened, haha. Got my picture taken and stuff all mentally frazzled like that. So surprised. They said that my time was 22:45 or something, but my watch had said 23:33. Dunno. We'll see when the results come online. Anyway, that made me really happy. My first award in a non-HS race since my first year of racing, when I was a 6th grader (also got third then). Third's my thing, I guess. I felt validated. Validation is nice. Pathetic, I know, but I think everyone wants to feel validated.

Lots of refueling afterwards. Still on a happyness high, though kinda tired, too. I was low on sleep this week, another reason why I wasn't expecting a great time. The 23:33 is heat-logged, but it's still right around my Soph yr State XC meet time, so to be close to a great weather race time brings its own satisfaction.

Watch splits> 3.2 in 22:33 (Ooooooooooooooooooh, it was 22:33. Makes much more sense now!!! haha. Hey, not bad for heat and hills and a slow start!!!. And my watch said 3.2... even better news if it was a long course. Anyway, continuing...), 7:04/mi, 265 Cal. 6:56 (mostly downhill, but sloooooow start. 1.01 mi), 7:24 (ppl spread out more, but hilly! 1.04 mi), 8:12 (hanging on, 1.14 mi). Oooh, I'm excited about my time now.

About the optimal time of day to run... I think I've seen research with opposite conclusions. Morning is better for some chemical reasons, evening is better for warmed up reasons... very high level and possibly wrong, my summaries are. I'm trained for evening running. I wonder what would happen on a 40 degree day with full sleep in the evening wearing flats. Not impossible at all! A very doable thing! The temps I can't control, but there will be quite a few ops in the winter. And the sleep and shoes are totally under my control. If I can do more speedwork (I may be healed enough for it now... eh, never mind about that... may be far enough from the inital injury now)... let's see what happens!

Stats:
3/285 women 20-29.
15/1677 women.
131/2910 overall.