In one week I improved my 5K time by 23 seconds. April 22 I ran the Alaska Heart Run in 19:51 and then ran the Get in Gear 5K the following Saturday in 19:28.
The Get In Gear course was very flat, and I don’t know if that was enough to make a difference, but it sure boosts my confidence that I was able to match my time from 2 years ago when I was 6 months postpartum.
The whirlwind of the day/night started at 6 p.m. Friday night when we departed Anchorage for Minneapolis. We first had to fly from Anchorage to Seattle, arriving at 10:30 p.m. We had a 2 hour layover in Seattle, and Cullen was a trooper through all of this–toting his Star Wars suitcase through the airport all by himself. (It was the cutest thing!) He fell asleep at 1:00 a.m. as we were waiting to take off from Seattle and slept the entire 3 hours from Seattle to Minneapolis. I, on the other hand, cannot sleep on planes. I drifted in and out of sleep for 2.5 hours, waking up every 15 minutes–not exactly sleep.
We arrived in Minneapolis at 6:00 a.m. My sister, Kristy, and her husband, Nick, picked us up from the airport, and then we headed to Starbucks for some breakfast. Even though I wasn’t hungry, I knew I had to eat something before for the race. I had some oatmeal and a coconut macchiato. It was then time to head to the race start. We knew it would take a while to get there–as there is a lot of traffic heading to the start, but it put us behind schedule. By the time we arrived at the start, my sister–who was running the half marathon, only had 8 minutes to get to the start and “warm-up.” Thankfully it didn’t seem to affect her performance!
I had about 30 minutes to warm-up, which was an okay amount of time. This was the first time I have ran this race, so I didn’t know exactly where the race started, where the bathrooms were, and the best strategy to get my warm-up in before heading to the start.
I prefer to know the course before running a race, but it also isn’t the end of the world if I don’t. (I just focus on the people in front of me and run the tangents.) Based off the results from the previous years, I positioned myself at the front of the pack at the start line. As soon as the air horn blew to start the race, I started out conservative but also at a pace that wouldn’t let me get too far behind the other females in front of me. I passed a few women within the first mile.
Mile 1 split – 6:18
Perfect! I continued to check my watch every quarter mile or so, but also made sure to stay in the zone and focus on the race. I’ve noticed that as soon as I start to think about other things–and take my mind off the task, my pace starts to drop. There was one girl still in front of me at this point. I worked to keep her in my sight and repeat positive things in my head: “You are stronger than her.” “She’s slowing down.” I only say these things to keep my thoughts positive and not give up mentally! I was able to work my way up to her after 1.5 miles. We ran neck-in-neck for the next mile.
Mile 2 split – 6:19
I tried to see if I could drop her, but she was sticking right with me. A couple times I thought to myself, “Oh well, she’s probably faster than me, so I’ll just let her win.” But then I remembered the power of positive thinking, so I continued to repeat positive mantras to myself.
Mile 3 split – 6:12
With one mile to go, I thought about trying to make my move at this point in time, but I also knew I didn’t have that much of a kick left, and I didn’t want to make a move too soon and then die. I held on, and then finally with about 1/2 mile to go, I decided to try to pull ahead and see if she would follow. I kicked it in and waited for her to come. I didn’t hear her or see her coming, so I kept going. At one point I also checked to see if I could see her coming up behind me by glancing at the shadows on the ground. (You gotta go, what you gotta do!)
0.12 Mile – 5:45 pace
I was pretty sure I had the win, but I also didn’t want to give up and then have her pass me at the very end, so I continued to push as hard as I could! I finally crossed the finish line as the first female and even got to (kind of) break the banner! [The two people holding the finish line banner pulled it apart (It is velcroed together in the middle.) before I actually broke it.]
I congratulated the second place woman and found out her name is Michelle is well, and she, too, has been battling a recent injury.
After saying hi to Craig, Cullen, and Nick, I ran the half marathon course backwards to find my sister and cheer her on. She was in 2nd place with no other women in sight. (The 1st place woman ended up finishing in 1:20.) She crossed the line in 1:27:13, which is was a new PR for her!
And now, I finally feel like I am getting back in my groove of running and racing. Let’s hope it continues because I cannot go through another 10 months of an injury again!
