This morning I ran the Race for the Cure 5K. This race is really a whole morning of events down at Qwest Field including a Kids run, Women’s 5K run, Co-ed 1 mile walk, Co-ed 5K run and Co-ed 5K walk. I did the Women’s 5K because I absolutely love all female races. And it’s hard not to get behind a breast cancer fundraiser.
Pre race: I woke up 5:40 am, ate breakfast, got myself organized and then headed out to catch a bus downtown. I got to Qwest Field (where the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders play) at about 7:10 am. This gave me lots of time to pick up my bib and t-shirt, drop off my bag and do a nice warm-up. I also got to use the cleanest porta potty I have ever seen in my entire life. For some reason my legs were extremely tight. All I could do was try to stretch them out and keep them warm before the race. The weather was absolutely perfect – cloudy and about 10C. The first event of the day was the Kids run at 7:45 am. I was impressed by the number of local mascots in attendance including Blitz, the Mariner Moose, Harry the Husky and Rhubarb the Reindeer.
Once the Kids run was over we women started lining up. They kept referring to this as the “Competitive Women’s 5K Run” but it wasn’t chip timed and they weren’t using pull tabs off our bibs either. The course was certified though so I figured my Garmin time would be my official time.
The race: I started about 5 rows back from the front line and I thought it was very cool that for about the first mile I could see the pace car and police escort ahead of me leading the front runners. Other than the first 50m I experienced no congestion issues. The course starts northbound heading up a ramp onto the lower lanes of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Then after about 1.5 miles you exit off Alaskan (after a climb followed by a downhill ramp) and then climb back up onto the upper lanes and head back southbound. I felt pretty good for the first mile but struggled with the hills in the second mile. By the third mile I was just holding on and hoping I’d make it to the end. My legs were tired but I don’t think the pre-race tightness was a factor. I used all the mental tricks I could to keep my pace up towards the end. My approximately accurate Garmin splits were 7:41 / 8:01 / 7:42 / 0:51 for a finish time of 24:15.
Post-race: I was pretty shaky when I crossed the finish line and it took a few moment of deep breathing with my hand on my knees to get my wits about me. I didn’t sit on the ground though because I thought I might not be able to get back up! Still, I was quite pleased with my time and the fact that I pushed hard all the way through to the finish. My time is 1:04 off my PB but that was set on a flat course. Plus I’ve only done one tempo run and one speedwork session in the last six weeks! So now I’m just going to keep plugging away with my “30 on 30″ training program. I’ve got 9 miles on the schedule for tomorrow morning!
