2012 CORVALLIS FALL FESTIVAL 5K RACE REPORT

Same route as last year (no surprise).

Well, it had been a whole year since my first ever race and it was time to see how I stacked up in that very same event. Frankly, while it was a given I was going to crush my 5k time from the year before (28:01), I wasn't very confident I was going to be able to set a PR or even really be in the ballpark. As I've described in earlier posts, I feel like I have gotten slower. Plus, this week, I really slacked off. After run group on Monday I ran just once more, on Wednesday, and that was after a few beers so the quality of run there wasn't so great.

Oh well, off I went anyways. Laurel was doing the race with us this year so she crashed on my couch so we could have a quick exit the next morning. Libbie stopped by at 6:55am and off we went!

Laurel and I post race, reliving OSU times.

We stopped at Starbucks on the way out for some coffee. So I had a Tall Venti Skinny Pumpkin latte and a chocolate old fashioned glazed doughnut. This is very similar to my pre-race breakfast before the Earth Day Run, and as we'll discover, there could be magic in this combination.

Anyways, the drive down there was uneventful. I was pretty awake because of the anticipation, so the drive went smoothly. Once there, we parked, picked up our t-shirts, and then stashed them back in the car. No hiding them in the bushes this year! They did change the order of starting times though so the 10k actually took off after the 5kers this year. Probably smart, only the really fast 10k people would have to deal with the 5k runners this way.

Before we knew it the race was about to start. I was excited to get going and see just how far I had "dropped off." I expected this race to be somewhat of a wake up call for me for slacking on training a bit. I tried to line up more towards the front this year. Last year I did quite a bit of weaving and wanted to avoid that this time around. They even had a guy on a megaphone trying to get people line up according to speed. Anyways, well it wasn't quite "Shamrock corrals" it seemed to be a little smoother. That, coupled with the closer starting position, led to less weaving... although I still had to do some - guess you can't really avoid it.


The girls after the race.

Once it had cleared a little bit I started pacing myself at a pretty decent clip. I would have guessed it to be 7:15/mile or so. I wanted to push myself but I didn't want to burn out. My lungs were burning but it was a comfortable burn, I didn't feel like I was going to die or anything. The legs felt good, so I just kept chugging along.

Through the OSU Campus we went, it was the same exact course as last year. At mile marker one I could hear them reading out the times... as I was still a distance away I heard "*mumble* thirty *mumble*" so my initial thought was "holy crap, I'm over seven and a half minutes already!" However, as I got closer, I could hear it was instead SIX minutes!

I crossed their mile marker at 6:46, easily my fastest mile ever. Really didn't feel like it. My phone didn't hit a mile until 6:57. Don't know which is more accurate, probably their measurements. Their course is officially measured and whatnot for 3.11 miles, my phone said the whole thing was only 3.08, so my phone short-changed me a little.

At this point I was pretty excited. Not only was I running fast, I felt like I could maintain it. It was a struggle, that was no doubt, but I just told myself I would be done in 15 minutes at the most. It was just a 5k, I could keep this up for two more miles! Probably not sub seven miles, but hell, just keep it within reason and my PR was in the bag.

My breathing got a little labored at times, my lungs were hacking up stuff, but I kept chugging along. Funny to think last year nine minute miles were doing the same thing to me, now I was running seven minute miles. Along the way I did a lot of passing and got passed very few times. Turns out I ran a pretty even clip, so I was passing a lot of people who went out too fast and couldn't maintain.


Me, shortly after setting a new 5k PR!

Like last year, I got some inspiration from kids in front of me and not wanting to let them beat me. While I did pass a number of kids who were running really fast, there were two in front of me I could never catch up to. But they were motivating at least.

At the two minute marker the times being read were "thirteen forty" something, so I knew I had done the next mile in about seven minutes. At this point, I had just a mile more to go so there was no slowing down or turning back now. I could sense the finish line. I skipped the water station again and powered small hill by Dixon Rec Center, passing a few people there.

After that, just the homestretch remained. Those two kids in front of me shot off like a cannon (they were racing each other) and I tried to follow up I didn't have quite the giddy up. I still came in pretty fast to the finish line. Looking at the clock as I passed I could believe what I had just done. 21:45! Really?!? I was too exhausted to think really, so I stumbled over, got my shoe tag off, grabbed water, and then tried to come back down to Earth. I was really spent, Earth Day Run spent, but a few splashes of water to the face and pacing in circles eventually brough me to the point of coherence again.

I wondered over to get position so I could watch Libbie and Laurel finish. I looked over at the clock to see how much time I had and I saw it pass 23:39, my old record. The fact that I had finished, got my tag off, grabbed a water, stumbled around and poured water over my head, just stood there breathing trying to catch my breath, and then wandered to watch the finishers only to finally see my previous PR roll by was amazing. I absolutely SMASHED it!

Libbie did great, not a PR for her but still an awesome time. Laurel did great also, finishing way faster than she thought she would and setting a PR for herself in terms of an actual event (she may or may not have ran faster during training).

I just missed out on awards for my age division (4th place), so we wandered around a bit then went to Blue Sky for lunch. Delicious!

Overall a very succesful race. Shattered my expectations! Apparently the long distance training strengthed my cardio and leg muslces or something and the speed was there when I needed it. I have no idea how this happened, but I am thrilled with the result!

Official Chip Time: 3.11 miles in 21:45, 7:00/mile pace. 34/427 overall, 4/20 M2029. Split times 6:57, 7:07, 7:09. The last .11 miles was ran at a 5:18/mi pace via extrapolation.