TC 5K

Meh! Everything about this race screams a great time. The weather was cool, there was no wind, and it is a course I know well as this was my third time running it. But I just wasn’t feeling it on race day. I made sure to line up in front of the kids (which caused me problems last year). I didn’t think about all the walkers too. Doh! This race has a lot of walkers, which, as I have said many times before is GREAT! But don’t line up close to the front and don’t take up the whole damn road! ARGH! The first mile of this race is tough. Besides weaving around walkers, kids, and strollers, there is the BIG hill. You run from the Minnesota Capitol up to the top of Cathedral Hill. It is a half mile up hill. It sucks…literally the wind right out of you. I got to the top of the hill and I could not find my stride. I thought I was giving it my all but my pace doesn’t reflect it at all. There were more ups than down during mile 2 but not nearly as bad as that hill in the first mile. I’m not sure what happened to me but mile 2 was worse than mile 1! I just couldn’t run and spent a bunch of time walking. But like I said, I know this course. And it is an out and back which mean what goes up, must go down. I hit the two mile marker and I put on the gas. This time I know that I was cruising as my pace finally reflects it. It was slower than I wanted but I was still happy that I was well under 13 minutes for mile 3. Once I hit the downhill, my pace never got slower than 12 minute mile pace and I even sprinted to the finish with a pace around 9:35. That is fast for me. I saw that I was close to hitting 39 minutes and I said to myself, I’m not getting a time over 38:59! I’m not getting into the 39s. And I didn’t. 38:56.

 

I started slow, got slower but finished strong and fast. I look forward to next weekend’s races, we have three! A 5K Saturday morning in Shakopee, a 5K Saturday afternoon in Mankato and the annual 10K in Mankato on Sunday morning. I love this 10K course as it has a nice long downhill. Hopefully I do well but based on recent poor performances, I don’t expect much.