SOLES2SOULS 5K PREVIEW

This Saturday I have a local 5k I signed up for called Soles2Souls. It's a race put on as a fundraiser for a local school and is only $12 and chip timed. Great deal! I am still a little concerned about the organization, I know they are still looking for volunteers and they switched the location of the race this year, but for only $12 it's worth a shot!

It takes place on the Fanno Creek Trail, which I know very well. It starts at the Greenway School, which I am pretty familiar with as it contained the out and back lollipop loop where I could scope the competition during my half marathon win last summer. Still have nightmares about that lady getting closer each lap until the last one when she ran out of steam. Anyways, getting off track.

Thankfully, I figured out the 5k route from their 10k map. They didn't post the actual 5k route, they just said "it is the same until here, then you turn around and head back to the finish," which, if you plug it into MapMyRun, actually makes sense and puts the run at 3.1 miles. So that was reassuring. Now hopefully everything is marked well and there are enough volunteers on race day to make it happen.

The course takes place on the trail, so it is pretty dang flat and a good place to go for a PR. The only elevation change is in the trail to/from Greenway School to the main park. The school is maybe 30 or 40 feet above the park and that path is a nice gradual incline. So I'll have a downhill starting off the race and an uphill coming back.

Which, honestly, I think will work out best. The downhill will allow me to push it at the beginning and make the 6:45/mile not feel so awful because I have the downhill working for me. When I hit the flat I'll just need to maintain it. On the way back, I'm going to be frickin' tired and gasping for air anyways, so who cares about a little hill. I'll be a quarter mile from the finish when it starts so I'll just have to nut up and finish strong.

I'd like to run more than 3 miles though, so after race I'll hang out to see if I got any awards and then maybe just go run another 6 or 7 on the trail (ten total for the day maybe?).

GOALS:

"A" Goal: Sub 21:00. This is 6:45/mile on a perfectly ran course. Would be SUPER thrilled with this time.

"B" Goal: My main focus is a new PR. Which is 21:08. So really the only difference between this and my "A" goal is 8 seconds. However, that's nearly 3 seconds/mile and I think it might be really close!

"C" Goal: I've done very little speed training recently. I did very well at the Rum Run, but in the two weeks since then I've done nothing to prepare for a 5k. I'm just basically running a 5k without specific training for it. So I'd like to go sub 22 and just run hard. Maybe it's not my day.