the trick is to keep breathing

Yes, I realize it was probably kind of silly to run a 5K the week before I run a half marathon. But it was a fun little charity event, some people from work were doing it, and I had a chance to run with Jeff and katmillia, which I was really looking forward to. Plus, $20 reg including a tech shirt? I'm down with that.

My goals for the race were pretty simple:
1. Don't injure self (half marathon is next week, dummy!)
2. Have fun!
3. Without injuring, time of 29:00 or below (~9:21 pace)

and in that order. I really was trying to not put an ideal time on it -- I've been training specifically for 5 months now, and I know what I *can* and *can't* run, so I knew what to expect, but I didn't want to push too hard in a silly little race and hurt myself for next week.

[5K] Just a Run in the Park by seventhe at Garmin Connect - Details

Final time:
    28:10 for 3.17 (watch)
    28:20 for 3.1 (chip)

Discrepancy explained: The chip started when the gun went off, but the actual start line for the 5K was a little ways away from where we lined up. I started my watch about 10 seconds after the gun, and only a bit before the start line. The difference in the two puts me between 8:53/mile and 9:08/mile. Based on my memories of the layout I think the most accurate measurement is 3.1 miles in 28:10, which is about a 9:05/mile pace.

The Just a Run in the Park 5K was very small and I kind of liked it that way. I heard only ~250 people were signed up, and I would honestly estimate that not all of them ran the 5K either (there was a 1mile run before the 5K). It was a little charity run for the local YMCA, and it was really cool: the start was laidback; we didn't have to get there too early or anything. We had time to walk our bags back to the car, and before the race started we all just hung our sweatshirts on a fence and trusted that they would be there when we got back (they were) (to be super safe, I did stick my car key in my sports bra, so if my nasty jacket did get stolen I was only out my inhaler, not my car). It was a very up-and-back-type course, lots of looping around things, with a bit of an incline in the middle and a pretty nice downhill at the end.

I had intended to start out at a 9:30 pace and then push at the end if I could, but the "pack" took off fairly fast and I really just kept up with it until I realized it felt ok. I'm pretty happy with my time; no, I'm not great, but it's pretty much in line with my training runs, and it's faster than I had in my head. I wasn't expecting to ~magically~ drop 3 minutes off of the times I saw in training or anything, so I feel pretty good about it. I was expecting to be slower mostly because I haven't been able to run very much in the last ~2 weeks due to these weird calf injuries -- I'm surprised (pleasantly) that I am this fast because I had expected to lose some fitness. But I guess that's what over 200 miles of training in 5 months does for my running ability! My speed has mostly stayed intact, I guess; let's hope my endurance has, too...

My legs were still sore going into the race, and I could feel all the places in my shins and calves (and left hamstring!) where the bad/injured spots are. But it was ok to run through, and hopefully tomorrow I won't be in too much pain. It does seem to be getting better with ice and rest, so I think I'll be okay for next week if not great.

I plugged my 5K time into some of the online "pace predicting" calculators, and they all seem to think I can do a half marathon in 2:10 -- that's just under a 10:00/mile for the whole half. That seems really optimistic to me; in my head I was hoping for about a 10:30/mile finish, which I think is around 2:20, and planning to be slower than that with water breaks etc. I will probably start out pacing myself for the latter, slower time, so that I don't kill myself early and have massive problems -- but it's interesting that all the predictors say I will be faster, and I am now kind of curious to see what kind of time I turn in. Of course the predictor calculators all point out that you need to be "appropriately trained" - obviously you can't just jump from a 5K to a halfmary without serious weekly mileage! - and I've had two weeks on my ass, so. Challenge noted, pace predictors, but not entirely accepted.

Another thing to note about this run, which is worth noting for next week: my asthma didn't show up. I was certainly breathing hard, but it's the hard breathing I associate with you just ran three miles you fucker, not the impossible shallow breathing that is my asthma. And I think this is because I took three pre-emptive doses of my inhaler: one at 6:30 with breakfast, one at 7:30, and one at about 8:10 right before we lined up for the race. I guess I don't really know if it was a mental thing or if it was effective dosing-of-self, but I'll definitely be doing the same thing for the half next week.

So yup, there it is. I'm glad I did it, and I'm really happy katmillia and I got to run a race together before she leaves for pretty much all summer XD. This mostly marks the end of my half marathon training plans... the only thing I would run this week, if my legs feel OK, would be a calibration run somewhere to just perfect my Garmin FR60 footpod before the half... We'll see!