Race Report:::2010 Pancake Day 5k - Sept, 25th 2010

Well I'm posting this pretty late.  I haven't had a lot of time and have kind of had a rough couple of weeks with work.  Additionally I have really struggled with my program and eating after this race.

Day before Race Day 9/24/10:
I had a post work picnic for work this evening.  I worked until 5pm and then headed over to the picnic which started at 5:30.   I was only going to stay long enough to eat and than take off as I had a 2 hour drive ahead of me.  I didnt want to get up tomorrow to drive 2 hours and then hop out and race so I had planned to drive to my parents house and spend the night and have a 20 min drive to the race the next day.  Unfortunately The picnic meal didnt get going till about 6:45 or 7 so I ate ( more that I should have) and bolted.

I drove to my house picked up my race bag with my garmin, my shoes, shirt, shorts, jacket  and a change of clothes for the next day kissed the wife and kids and took off.

I arrived at about 10:15pm talked with Mom and Dad a little and then went to sleep.

Race Day 9/25/10



Pre Race
6:00 am - Wake up do my morning routine.  Eat some breakfast 1 egg with and English muffin and some peanut butter.

7:15 am - Leave for the race.  Its about a 20-25 min drive.  I had my garmin on during the drive and noticed my resting HR escalate from about 68 when we left up to 77 by the time I arrived.  Never really noticed

7:40 am - Picked up my Registration package.  Went to stretch out and warm up.  Its a chilly 62° F and I think it is about to rain

Just before the start

I was meeting my cousin to do this race.  She had showed some interest in my progress and how well I was doing and she wanted to do this run so I offered to run this with her.  As it turns out she brought her whole family.   Her son, daughter, and husband all came to run with her.  I was blown away.  What a great bunch of support she has.   Additionally her husband was recently diagnosed with cancer, Non hodgkins lymphoma I think.  He was going to run too.  I was seriously impressed and felt amped up about Her husband running.

7:58 am -  Everyone is lining up.  It looks and feels like it could rain.   Honestly I don't feel the best about this race I just don't feel at the top of my game.  We are all settling in and Im lined up next to My cousin and her husband.  Im about middle of the pack halfway back. 150 participants lined up 10K, 5K, and 1 mile walkers.

The Race
8:00 am - Bang!  We are off.  Its kind of a mess lots of people are trying to jostle for position.  I stay with my cousin and her husband Ill refer to them as A and J respectively.  We stay together for the first 2 blocks and A my cousin kind of drops off a little slower.  I should have as well but I stayed up with J as he was moving along pretty good.  We begin to talk a little and he said he was doing great which was good to hear.   I look down at my Garmin and see we are moving at a 9:30 pace much faster than I wanted to go out.  I intended on running 12 min pace on the front half and 10 min pace on the back half.  I slowed us down to about 11:30 pace it seemed to feel right and as I began to get into the run I really started feeling much better about the race.

8:10 am -We are just past the first 1k and J says he is doing good and I say something about how impressed I am and he says,  "Ya me to I feel pretty good for having Chemo treatment on Wed."  At that point I was blown away.  I feel pretty good about how far I've come.  This is going to be the first 5k that Ive run the whole distance without walking.  Then J says he just had Chemo on Wed and I feel crappy about how little I have progressed but at the same time Just amazed at him.  We keep going and we approach our 2k marker and J has to stop and walk I  slow up a little and he tells me to go on.  I really want to go on so I confirm that he is ok and then keep going.  Im on my own now I get my pace back under control and start racing.

This whole course is city streets in some very nice quiet neighborhoods.   Slight rolling hills nothing to major.  At the 3k marker I hit a very steep downhhill  which is immediately followed by a very steep uphill.  I bounce through without to much problem.  Nice flat on the backside and I am able to recover quickly.  Im just running and as I approcah the halfway I check my pace and pick it up a little to about 10:45.  That didn't last very long.  I startedinto this hill a few minutes after my pace adjustment that just kept going.  By the time a reached the top my pace had degraded to about 15 min pace just barely going.  I knew I was close to the the 4K mark so I pushed through.  I heard my Garmin "BEEP"!  1 more K to go.  By this time I had rounded the last corner approaching the finish.  The finish line was still almost a kilometer away but I could hear the cheering crowd and see the finish.  It gave me a mental boost and I pushed ahead a little harder.  I could tell I was wearing out and didn't want to blow my last bunch till I was a bit closer so I held off a little.  As it turn out it looked farther than I thought because it was farther than I thought.

Official time 37:07

I'm running down this straight away getting closer to the finish line and all of a sudden.  "BEEP" my Garmin alerts me that another 1K lap as just started.  I look at my time and I'm like 35:11 and I still have 300-500 meters before I hit the finish line.  When that happened I just felt my body give up I felt defeated by the inaccurate distance.   Knowing that I had completed the 5K yet I still had further to go.

I see my Dad and Sister at the finish cheering for me as I cross.  I really pushed my self at the end and I could feel my lungs and legs were on fire.  I walked around to the coolers to grab some water.

The Finish
I finished 55th overall and 4th in my AG. So Im still at the bottom of the pack but I really did improve.  If I look at my finish time I cut a minute off my time from the last 5k on July 3rd and If I look at my actual 5k time due to the inaccurate distance I improved by almost 3 minutes a PR for me!  I finished with an Avg pace of 11:58 which is better than I expected and better than last time.  And most importantly I finished running the whole thing.  That was a huge accomplishment.

I cheered A and J as they both came in.  It was way cool so proud of them both.

Not so proud of the event staff.  There was no water left as the last participants crossed the finish line.  How could they run out of water.  My cousin did not even get any water.  Very disappointed with the preparation.

And it started to rain....