Sunday, June 10, 2012

13.1 marathon Karhu 5k race recap (AKA that time I got 2nd place woman OVERALL)

"The time I got 2nd OVERALL woman in a 5K."


Stats:

23:41* I believe my 4th fastest 5K.

2 of 232 Women 


21 of 378 Overall (Top 5%)
Photo from Maggie
It was very cool to meet the other Chicagoland bloggers in real life after following their blogs for so long :)

I won this entry from Emily @ Out and About on Monday- which made my week! :)





After cheering for the first few waves of Half marathoners, I got in a nice warmup of slow running and about 8 strides to get my heart going. My plan was to keep it comfortably hard and have fun. This wasn't a goal race and I really havent been doing much speed work as my goal has been to get up to running 30-50 miles a week comfortably.






Mile 1: 7:10  I believe the first half mile I ran in 3:20..  UH OH!


My Garmin also decided to change the way it was displaying, so I had a hard time telling what my pace was.

At the turn around I saw that I was 2nd woman overall. It now became my mission to keep it that way. 


I also saw Meghan out on the course! :)


I kept thinking how I did not want the title of this post to be "That time I was 2nd overall for 2.5 miles and then got passed by 2 ladies at the finish. and blew it!" I also thought how much I hated running {fast}- why am I torturing myself with this??. HA!

Miles 2 and 3 were in 7:40's... I was struggling to keep moving. Side stitch was intense and It was taking everything inside of me to just keep running at this point. I even had to grab water at mile 1 and 2.5 because my mouth was so dry. Ive never gotten water in a shorter race before.







I saw the sign above when WW and I were walking around later in the day. It pretty much sums up how I felt after mile 1.

As I finally entered the South Shore Cultural center, I knew it was less than a tenth of a mile to the finish, and just kept telling myself to keep going, while looking over my shoulder for other women. Before the finish, the top 2 men in the half blew past me.

As soon as I finished, the announcer read my name and confirmed I was 2nd woman to finish! I was so elated to be done, and must admit,pretty darn pleased with myself for holding onto my place in the race and earning my 1st ever "Podium" spot.






Immediately after finishing, someone put a green band on my wrist and told me I could go to the VIP area (above) to chill out before the awards ceremony- and could have a guest come join me. A reporter from Competitor(?) interviewed me afterwards asking me how the race went. I think I mumbled something about side stitch and it being difficult and hot out there.
Top 3 finishers in the 5K! Im in the middle. Thank you Britt for snapping this gem! :)





My 2nd place medal. Yeah, while I did feel so happy to be standing up there, It was also incredibly humbling standing next to the winner (Gray shirt) who sailed in over 5 minutes ahead of me and who ran the Olympic marathon trials earlier this year!

I will cherish this memory for a long time. Usually I am around 20th in my age group and around 100th woman for the "smaller" half marathons here. (I dont do many 5K's so I have nothing to compare to)

To come in as 2nd woman was crazy and something I never thought possible (especially with a 23:41).



Post race Wonderful, Wonderful and I went out to Revolution Brewing to get brunch. Their eggs Benedict was amazing.

Lessons Learned:

  • Dont go out too Fast. Ever. Negative splits or even splits are preferable.
  • I do not know how to "race" 5Ks.
  • Check the Garmin beforehand to ensure it will display properly.
  • 5Ks are "Lung Burners"
  • Drink a bit more before a race regardless of distance when its hot out.
  • Eat something when I get home before eating loads of food to avoid getting very sick later on.
  • Take a salt tab post race (even 5K) to replace the lost sodium-potassium, etc. to avoid getting sick.
Next up:

This week starts marathon training. Only 14 weeks until the Fox Valley marathon! Im so incredibly excited to have this lady as my Coach to guide me through training. I'm also super proud of my WW for starting Chicago Marathon training this past week and can't wait to run with him in October! 

Cheers!


- xaar

17 comments:

  1. YAYYYYY so proud of you!!!!!!!

    Congrats on 2nd overall woman, you absolutely deserve it. I knew special stuff was coming for you this weekend :)

    And that's a pretty darn cool medal too...!

    Can't wait to run w/you and Britt sometime!!

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  2. Yay whhoooo! So proud of you and your beautiful podium finish. Over time the finish time will seem less important and the fact that you finished jut a hair behind a 2:45 marathoner will stick. Love the oh shit sign! And all your pics are great.

    Week 1 here we go!

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  3. Congrats! That's so awesome!

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  4. Congrats! What an amazing race and how cool that you got the VIP treatment to boot!
    :)

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  5. I was SO excited to see you on the course and notice that you were the second woman! I am so happy for you - you looked great out there! Congrats!!!

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  6. AHHHHH!! You are so awesome!!!! What a great job!! Hope you enjoyed your celebratory brunch, i live right by revolution brewery and drink there way too often :)

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  7. AHHH!!! Super congrats on 2nd place overall podium finish! That is so badass!!!!

    5Ks are SO SO hard to race. I need to figure out how to do it better too. But you seem to be doing okay ;)

    So nice to meet you!

    Can't wait to hear about your training with Britt. I love working with her :)

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  8. YAY YAY YAY! I'm so freaking excited for you. You are listening to your body have come back from injury so much strong. :)

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  9. Congrats on 2nd place! Awesome job! It was nice meeting you and talking with you a bit :)

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  10. Wow, congrats on 2nd place overall - that is awesome! VIP area, interview - all sounds very cool! 2/232 is an amazingly high percentage finish!

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  11. WOOHOO! Great job on the lung burner! 5ks are hard because to race them requires such an all out effort. Great job on the 2nd place!

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  12. Nice job! 2nd overall is crazy awesome! Congratulations!

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  13. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Second overall woman is an AMAZING accomplishment!!! You should be so proud! I hope you enjoyed every moment of being up on stage during the awards ceremony, what a huge honor! GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

    (Sorry that I missed the blogger photo meetup, I had some logistical challenges. =( )

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  14. Great job!!!!! I love your medal.

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  15. Ah I was totally trying to catch up to you!

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  16. Congrats on the great finish! You were one of the many to blow by me on your way back as I was still on the first half of the race, haha. Wasn't a fan of the 180 turn to head back...

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