Summer Sizzler 5K Race Recap

There are many times I realize how bad of a blogger I am... one of those times it right now as I remember that I took absolutely no pictures of the Summer Sizzler 5K to share with you. So I searched high and low on the internet (not really) to find this picture that depicts the overall feeling of the event:

The race lived up to it's name and was, in fact, very hot. I really wish summer races started at 7am, but oh well. 

I ran this race with my friend Jessica and her friend Lori. We had a bit of an issue actually finding the race (don't trust the active.com directions!) but we eventually found it and then waited in a very long, very disorganized, very understaffed line to register and pick up our bibs. The race wasn't chip timed (which turned out to be an issue) so after we got our bibs we made a quick stop by the port-o-potties (only one that actually had toilet paper) and then headed to the starting line. The race actually ended up starting about 15 minutes late but after some instructions the horn sounded and we were off! 

So, there's two schools of thought on how to run a 5k. The first is to start off fast and try to hang on and the second is to start out slow and controlled and build your speed as you go. Normally I go for the second I was feeling pretty go and going pretty fast so I decided to just see how long I could go. Uh... about one mile, that's how long. 

Mile 1- 7:57 (fastest mile in a REALLY long time!) 

There was a water stop at the first mile marker so I walked through it. I am not coordinated enough to run and inhale liquids at the same time (trying to do so has led to many coughing/spitting/choking episodes that I'd rather not relive) so I've learned to just take 5 seconds and walk in order to get some water in. 

During the second mile I kind of got stuck in a pack of an old man that was breathing like he was dying, a younger teenaged kid and an middle aged man who appeared to be in decent shape. We were passing and being passed by each other for the rest of the race. I'll keep you in suspense for now as to who won out of our little misfit pack :). 

Mile 2- 8:48 

It was an out and back course so I saw the leaders of the race at some point in here. They were FAST. At this point I was just trying to hang on and not completely fizzle out. Most of the course was shaded which was awesome, but there were a couple spots of direct blazing sunlight. Loved those. 

There was also a water stop at the second mile but I took a sip of the water and almost puked because it tasted like hot bath water. I just dumped the water on my head (yeah, not that refreshing but I'm sure I looked just like this girl when I did it...).

Mile 3- 8:56

I know you've just been dying to know who the eventual winner of the mini-race we had going on was, so I'll tell you. By about 2.5 miles the middle aged man and I had broken away from the kid and the breath-like-he-was-dying older gentleman. He (the middle aged man) started to pull away from me a little bit, but I knew if I could keep him in my sight and keep going at a fairly consistent pace I could eventually beat him. When I knew we were close to the finish line I started sprinting and caught up to him! He fought for a while but eventually just couldn't keep up with my break-neck speed and I beat him! Take that, you got beat by a girl! 

Mile 3.1- 0:35 

Oh yeah, I sprinted that last 0.1 mile, finishing with a time of 26:14. 

We stayed for the race results because I figured that since I was a small race I stood a decent chance of placing within my age group. We waited... and waited... and waited... did I mention the race was disorganized? They finally called my age group and someone ran 22 minutes, someone 26:12 and... then someone 27:34? Um... I know that the garmin can be off but not by over a minute. We waited a little while to ask what had happened, but it was just taking forever so we left.

The next morning I checked the results online and saw it had me finishing with a time of 35:38. Um... what?? Definitely not. I didn't know what to do about it... on one hand it's only one race and I knew that I had run well but on the other hand I didn't like the official results not reflecting the correct time. I decided to just email the person in charge and let them know that there had somehow been a mixup. I wasn't really expecting anything but this morning I got an email saying that they had looked into and found out that my tag had been placed in the wrong pile. My real race finish time was 26:17 and I came in third place!

I really appreciated the fact that they looked into the results for me. I feel like I've worked pretty hard this summer to get back into shape and was really disappointed that the results didn't show that. And I have a lot of respect for the results group for admitting the mistake and looking into it for me! I was totally expecting a "sorry about that... mistakes happen" email response.

So, overall, it was a good race. It was disorganized, definitely, but the people were nice and helpful. There are several other races run by the same group this summer and I am looking forward to running them!

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Quickly, here's my weekly workout report from last week. I know that I said I wanted to do a 6 miler, but the morning I woke up for it I just wasn't feeling it. I was exhausted and just happy to get the miles in that I did.

I only got in three runs:

7/26: 3mi/28:33/9:29 mi/min

7/29: 4mi/38:38/9:40 mi/min

7:30: 3mi/26:14/8:26 mi/min

And for the week: 10mi/1:33:56/9:16 mi/min

This week starts marathon training... I'll have a whole post about it tomorrow!