The Little Things
October 15, 2013

Saturday morning I ran the homecoming 5k race that was my first 5k back in 2011. The last time I ran the race I had no idea what a race high was, what it was like to step up to a starting line, or what it was like to finish a race, no matter what distance it was. On Saturday, I knew those things well, but I wasn’t particularly stressed or excited. I needed to leave my house at 7:05, so I set my alarm for 6:45, but ended up snoozing until 6:50 (talk about relaxed, right?!). I threw on my clothes, grabbed a protein bar and my standard 8-10 ounces of orange juice, and ran out the door. My 5k time has been set since November of 2011 (30:48). I set it on a Turkey Trot (my 2nd race ever), and haven’t been able to break the time. It’s been frustrating to say the least, so today I had no expectations other than to just have a fun run.

I stuffed down the bar and OJ as I drove to the start line, and once got there checked in, warmed up, and put on my race bib. I talked to a few people I knew, not bothering to try to get into any sort of racing mentality. Then it was go time.

The race horn went off (it was a pretty small race), and I hit my runkeeper and went. I did the 3:1 (run:walk) Galloway Method, and although the first minute or two my legs were really hurting, I quickly fell into a good pace. I was feeling really good, and I hit the first mile in a pace MUCH faster (by about 1.5-2 minutes) than I traditionally do my runs at. I suddenly got nervous. I was feeling good, but I didn’t want to crash and burn after the 2nd mile. I thought about dialing it back, but then thought that it didn’t matter if I crashed and burned this time because I was only trying to have fun!

Everything sort of fell together. The traditional aches and pains seemed to go away. I was breathing hard but didn’t get a side cramp (so rare during a race!). It felt GOOD. My runkeeper told me when I hit 25 minutes, and I realized that I was about half a mile from the finish. This was the first time I seriously thought that maybe I could beat my PR.

I kicked it hard the last .3 of a mile, and looked up as I crossed the finish line: 30:33! I PR’d by 15 seconds when I wasn’t trying to do that at all! Of course I am still frustrated that I haven’t hit below 30, but I’m so excited to move on from this PR I’ve held for almost 2 years!

5k PR5k PR!

This also got me thinking- do I psych myself out? Have I been training better/differently/done more cross training and has increased speed? Was it just my day to race? No matter what it is, I’m so happy to have a new 5k PR!

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9 responses to “Homecoming 5k Race {and a new PR!}”

  1. Pam says:
    October 15, 2013 at 6:27 am

    Congrats on your new PR! You will get below 30 minutes….so close now!

  2. Courtney says:
    October 15, 2013 at 8:59 am

    Congrats on your PR! You’ll get under 30 before you know it!

  3. Clarinda says:
    October 15, 2013 at 10:36 am

    Congratulations! Sometimes the best PRs come when you’re just running to have fun. I think they feel the best too. Nice job. 🙂

  4. Meg @ Meg-in-Training says:
    October 15, 2013 at 11:21 am

    Great job! I’m jealous of that time!

  5. The Little Things says:
    October 26, 2015 at 6:18 am

    […] This race is special to me: This was my very first race after I started running (back in 2011), and in 2013 I set my current 5k PR on it. This year, due to construction, they changed the course up a bit, and unfortunately that […]