Third race in 2011!

I wasn’t planning on running another race before my half-marathon next spring, but when I walked into church a few weeks ago, there was a booth set up advertising a 5K race to raise money for outreach.

A lumberjack-themed 5K with a pancake lunch afterwards that only costs $5? Rachel is IN!

In the ensuing three weeks, I didn’t change my running habits very much. I generally kept a 3 – 2- 3 week, running three days a week. Ideally, I would also do two strength-training circuit training sessions per week. Did I? Eh, not so much. If I was honest with myself, I would say I slacked off a bit. I was pretty confident that another 3.1 mile race would be just another piece of delicious cake.

It ended up kicking my patootie.

The atmosphere was fun as we gathered in the church atrium. We were all wearing flannels, someone had a Tigger tail pinned to their pants (it was the day before Halloween), and it was a fun mix of families, college students, and couples. The Marion police helped us out with the start by blocking traffic across 38th Street, and all 89 of us were off. My goal was to be back in less than 30 minutes.

Half a mile in, I knew it would be a tough run. I don’t know if I hadn’t drunk enough water, not had the proper nutrition over the last couple days, or if it was the culmination of a couple weeks of slacking slightly – whatever it was, I was struggling. The group seemed to quickly divide in two groups, and I seemed to be somewhat in the middle.

I was annoyed at myself for struggling. I wanted to do better. I wanted to FEEL better. I knew it was in me! What was going on? But I kept going, and tried to keep my pace constant. I got back to 38th Street (a church member in a safety jacket ran out to block traffic for me, yelling, “Go girlie!!”) and turned the corner to head back to the church. I managed to sprint the finish, and when we calculated my time later (using picture timestamps. Oh, I forgot, Steve was the official photographer) I came in at 30 minutes flat.

Not too bad for a less-than-perfect run.

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t slack off the strength training. My ankles and shins killed for days afterwards. I think that would have made a difference.

2. STRETCH! I usually am so focused on what I have next to do that I fail to take proper time to stretch. On Sunday, it was probably the pancakes waiting for me. 🙂