LADYBUG 5K & CRAWFISH CRAWL HALF RACE PREVIEWS

Ladybug 5k route starting in Cook Park.

On Saturday morning I am doing two races. The Ladybug 5k and the Crawfish Crawl Half Marathon. I have dubbed it the "Crawbug 26k." All told it will be just over 16 miles of racing. The Ladybug has a 10k I was thinking about, but technically this is a down week in my training schedule and I don't think racing 19 miles would be the best idea, even if the challenge of it is enticing. Sixteen is enough!

How did this all come about? Well, originally when I saw the Crawfish Crawl was adding a 10k and half marathon I was pretty excited. Historically it has just been a 5k and something I have never done (I volunteered last year). It is one of the few races in my hometown of Tualatin, so the chance to do a half was exciting. I was having visions of running near places from my past, the high school, parks I played soccer at, etc.

Well, it turns out the run isn't quite what I was hoping. It uses a double loop inside Tualatin / Durham / Cook Parks that I run all the time and is the main route in other races I've done like the Earth Day Run, Rum Run, and HoHo. So nothing new on the course. The start time is also 10:30am. IN AUGUST. Meaning I'll be running the final miles of a half marathon after noon in August (likely temp... 80F). Yeah, not good.

Why a 10:30am start? Well, it turns out another race had the permits to use the parks before then. Enter the Ladybug 5/10k. It just so happens to be put on by a local runner, who also put on the 5k I won almost two months ago, and has a very good reputation. They offered a discount code to those who were also running Crawfish to entice them to sign up and do a double. I bit.

Crawfish Crawl Half map starting at Tualatin Park (2 loops)

One of the reasons I decided to do the other race is there is little chance I can PR given the 10:30am start and slightly hilly park course. Originally, when envisioning a 7:30am start and "Tour de Tualatin" route, I thought I had a chance to PR this race. Not so much. So instead of killing myself trying to PR and maybe having a repeat of Miami, I'm going to take the half easier. I'm not going to just pretend it's a long run, but I won't be shooting for record times.

So here is the plan... run the 5k hard, but don't focus on a PR. I don't want to pressure myself to leave it all out there when I have to run a half marathon shortly after. So I'm thinking a nice hard effort will come in between 21 and 22 minutes. Probably won't look at my Garmin and just go with feel. Then for the half marathon, treat it as a marathon pace training run. Give my 7:55/mile marathon pace a run at 13 miles. Normally I target it during shorter runs, but this will be a good chance to lock it in for many miles.

Now, 7:55/mile in the heat will be no joke. So, should towards the later part of the half marathon I feel the need to slow down, I'm going to slow down. I'm not going to kill myself over this thing. Honestly, if I get a 1:50 half, who cares. It's training! I need to do what's best for my body in prep for the Portland Marathon, and with a twenty mile training run looming next weekend, I don't need to trash my body over a race I'm not going to PR.

Anyways, so no official goals. Maybe not PRing should be the goal. Just run them hard but don't kill myself. Have fun with the double and just remember I am in the midst of marathon training and to take the long view.