St. Patty's Day 5K Race Recap

Morristown St. Patty's Day 5K
March 13, 2010

Garmin Stats:
3.15 miles
21:36 (21:32 chip time)
6:54 pace
5:06 best pace

Weather:
*39 degrees at start

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Rain/wind

Rain. Cloudy with strong and gusty winds. Temperatures steady near 48F. Winds ENE at 25 to 30 mph. Rainfall near a half an inch.

In a word: Wet.

So, I didn't accomplish my goal of breaking 21 minutes on this course, and I didn't even beat last year's time. I basically fell exactly in the middle of my previous times on this course. The good news is the weather has never been this bad before and I'm sure the rain and high winds slowed me down a bit. The even better news is that I was the 5th female finisher (out of 363 women) and took 2nd in my age group (20-29). I am most excited about finishing in the top 5. I have been placing in my age group fairly consistently, but I am thrilled to be placing higher overall.

The boys from work chickened out of running, I guess they were scared of a little rain. So I think that means I win, even if by default :)

Splits:
Mile 1: 6:45
Mile 2: 7:12 (This is where the hill was.)
Mile 3: 6:51
00.1: 6:15

The first mile I went out wayy too fast (as usual). I looked at my watch and it said I was running at a 5:40 pace. Not soo smart. I really need to keep that in check. So I made an effort to slow down and settled in at around 6:45. Between miles 1.7-2.1 was the hill and I slowed down significantly. At the top and tried to recover and pick it up for the last mile. Right after mile 3 someone shouted that I was the 5th female and that gave me the extra kick I needed at the end to finish strong.

I received some nice loot :) The race gave out a nice technical tee (too big as usual!), and for my age group finish I received a cute medal and a $15 gift certificate to RoadID. Something I was going to purchase anyway, so I was happy about that!



Lessons Learned:

1.) No heart rate monitors during a race. I went out pretty fast and even though I had it strapped on pretty tight, before I knew it the band was around my belly button. I promptly pulled it off and stuffed it into my pocket.

2.) Don't over dress!! I always over dress in the winter and today was no exception. It was cold and raining and I was freezing when we were warming up, but by the time we lined up, I was already warm and we hadn't even started yet. It ended up working out well because I was able to zip my HR monitor into my jacket pocket and didn't have to worry about losing it, but I could have done without the jacket.

3.) Don't go out too fast! Per usual, I got excited and went out too fast. This burns up all your glycogen stores early on in the race. (I also do this during tempo runs.) I need to learn to pace myself.

All in all, I am pleased. I'm happy my dad and I ran the race and if nothing else it was a really good tempo run. (That 3 mile one I seem to keep putting off!) It wasn't the best or most fun race I'd ever run but it felt good to get out there and race again. I saw some crazy St. Patty's costumes, and a couple of guys even dyed their facial hair green :) Not a bad start to the racing season!