Boulder Prix 5k

Everything about this race had me torn. Drive an hour to run this free (for me) race, or stay in town and do a local race that supports orphans, and pay the registration fee? Race hard and try to get a PR, or take it easy because I have 11 miles on the schedule for this weekend’s long run? Skip the race all together so I can focus on my 11 mile run, or go for it, since it’s free. Come home from the race and run another 8 to equal my 11 miles, or rest and run 11 on Sunday.

These thoughts kept going through my head last night as I got ready.  Of course, I ended up going, and running it. I wasn’t really feeling it, though. I didn’t really push myself but I got a PR (by one second, but who’s counting?!?!), and I came home and ran another 8… well, 6.5 and then 1.5 but that’s because I can’t calculate distances in my head while I’m running.

So last night, my sister was working on moving out and she and a friend were bringing boxes downstairs to make their loading easier this morning. Of course every time they came downstairs, the dog decided she needed to bark at them. This went on until 11:30 or midnight, while I was trying to sleep. Then, when my alarm went off this morning, and I re-set it because I had set it way to early by mistake, the dog decided she needed to go outside and play. She let us know this by barking, of course. I took her out so she could pee, and put her back in her kennel. I went back to bed, but as soon as I got comfortable, she started whining and barking again, like she needed to go out. No chance I was going back to sleep at this point, so I got up and took her out again. At least she wouldn’t wake everyone else up.

After I was done dealing with the dog, I got ready to go to the race. I still hadn’t decided if I wanted to try for a PR or not, and if I wanted to run another 8 today, or 11 tomorrow. I pretty much planned to show up and see how it all went.

There was no traffic heading down, and I easily found parking right by the finish line. I put on my sunblock and race bib and walked to the start line. I was way early so I walked around for 30 minutes to loosen up. It still always cracks me up to see other people “warming up” by running for 30+ minutes (and probably several miles), or doing sprints while waiting. Talk about dedication! I get exhausted just watching them.

I lined up with my 8:30 wave, about a minute before the gun. I still wasn’t feeling it, so I decided to just go for a comfortable pace. I’m glad that’s what I decided on, because the course ended up being hillier than I expected. It wasn’t bad but I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to really push it. I took advantage of the down hills and tried to keep it consistent on the flats. I was pretty surprised to see my mile splits, though. I was hoping to at least stay sub-14 minute miles, and except for mile 3, I did, and even that one was close.  

The course was closer to 3.2 than 3.1, according to my GPS but my official finish time was 42:43 which is a second faster than my previous 5k PR. And, if my GPS is correct, my time at 3.1 was 41:40. Not bad for not trying to PR.