A missed PR

So throughout my short running career, I've only run a few 5K's. Weird, I know. I've run every distance up to a marathon, but only 5 5K's before yesterday. My first one... well it was my first. I did my best, it was a HUGE accomplishment at the time. It was the Burn Center 5K in June of 08 and my time was 28:23. My second one was kind of a last minute decision to run. It was the Rochester Lost Bridge Trail 5K in July of 08 and my time was 25:58 (my PR). My third one was interesting! It was supposed to be a biathlon in September of 08, but it got rained out a bit. Hurricane Ike knocked out the bike portion, but we still got to run a 5K. That time... and it was POURING DOWN RAIN... was 26:33. Missed my PR by 35 seconds. I was ok with that considering the conditions. My fourth one was just this year in May 09. It was the Brian McMillian Veterans 5K and my time was 26:08. Another missed PR, this time by 10 seconds. Well, there was no excuse for this one. Nice conditions, a little warm, but not too bad. Just didn't make it. My fifth 5K was in July 09 and it was the Burn Center one again. I ran this with a friend who made it her 1st 5K, so I wasn't running for time. Our time at this race was 31:45.

So then there was yesterday. Yesterday was the Titan Trek for Tech 5K in Chatham, IL. They were raising money for the technology at the Ball-Chatham schools. Weather conditions were just about perfect. 45F or so at the start with sunny skies. I had a good feeling about this race. I was gonna PR. I had to. I just ran a marathon last month, surely I was in better shape then last year's PR. Race start was a little shaky. We all walked together over to the start line... some guy yelled something and then everyone started running. No air horn, no whistle, no car horn. Just started running. I was midway through the pack and this was not a chip timed race. (The start of my excuses). I scrambled to get my garmin to sync before I hit the start. It took me a good 10-12 seconds to cross the start line, and then me, a friend and her dad were all off! I started the timer on my garmin at the start line, but it didn't sync with gps, so no pace. Oh well. We went up the side of all the people and tried to pass as fast as we could. A lot of people were either younger (grade schoolers and high schoolers) or older than us (their parents). We weaved in and out of people for a bit. By the time we hit mile 1 people who went out too fast were starting to slow down. We definitely passed a lot around this time. I think the garmin said 8 min and some change.

Mile two was kind of a blur, but I remember just trying to keep up with my friend and her dad. We've all run together at races before and I know that we all run about the same pace. But somewhere between mile 1 and 2, I started to get a side cramp (the excuses continue). It was just a twinge at first. No big deal. I ended up dropping back behind my friends, but I was still right on their backs. I don't remember the time at mi 2, but it had to be somewhere in the 16 min's+ area. By mile 2.5 I had fallen back a bit, but I just tried to hold on tight. The side cramp was killing me by now and I just wanted this race to end. I kept checking the time on my watch, and I remember thinking 'I can still do this'! I gave it all I had at the end. I usually have a pretty good kick, but I didn't have it this time. I crossed the finish line in a saddening 26:04. I missed my PR by 6 SECONDS! I don't believe it.

I recovered fairly quickly, congratulated my friend who came in just before me. We all hung around for the awards which were pretty quick to come. My friend and I were talking and I mentioned that there probably weren't that many people in our age group and she might win an award. Yeah. She did. She won 1st in our age group (they only gave awards for 1st in each category) and I got second. I think some 10 year old won 1st overall female... that was unreal! She was amazing! Overall a great race... but I'll have to try again for my PR. Like next weekend at the Jingle Bell 5K!!!