Berry Run 5K

Yes, I am aware I haven't done my Newport Marathon race report yet... I have actually been quite busy adjusting to almost THREE days of work this week (last week was about 1.25 days at work between Hawaii and Oregon). (How in the world am I going to manage a five-day work week next week?)

It's unfortunate because I have actually mentally composed a lot of my race recap (while doing my recovery/comeback runs) and I am afraid the details will go dim, the longer I wait. So I'll try to get my act together. I also need to decide if I want to fork over the $ for any of the moderately/extremely unflattering official race photos.

The marathon was Saturday and I took Sunday through Tuesday off running. Wednesday morning I braved the rain (though I did put on a jacket when I opened the front door and saw what looked like almost a downpour). (To digress for a moment--Wednesday afternoon we had a true downpour, hail and so much rain that my windshield wipers could not fend it off. The streets were running like rivers and some local areas flooded just from rainfall!) My legs had stopped aching by the time I got home from Oregon Tuesday night (despite the long drive home), but they were pretty heavy Wednesday morning. I stuck it out for exactly six miles, average pace about 10:30.

Friday morning I slept in a little and didn't get myself out until about 8:00. The weather was pretty mild, just a light drizzle which I don't mind at all. I had thought of doing 8 or 9 miles but due to my lazy morning I really pushed my time boundaries even squeezing in 7.5! I was still not especially light on my feet, though; average pace just over 10:00.

So it was not without a few qualms that I decided to go ahead and run the Marysville Berry Run 5K. I really was not sure whether I had it in me to muster up any kind of 5K pace. On the other hand, who but me would care whether I ran a 9-minute pace or the more desirable sub-8?

The last two years I have gotten PR's at the Berry Run (each time beating them later in the summer). It's a super-flat, fast course.

I drove up to the race site, Smoky Point Plant Farm, about an hour before the race started. After I forked over my $20 admission and found the porta-potty, I started jogging around to warm up. (My legs, that is. It was already sunny by 7:30 this morning. Nicest day of the year so far!) I thought I would jog after the tail end of the one-mile race. I did veer off their course a bit to add some mileage and also not interfere with the finishers.

I ended up with a two mile warm-up and enough extra time to stand in the porta-potty line. I thought that the two mile jog was a little more tiring than it ought to be, but hoped I'd still have steam for the 5K!

I stood pretty close to the starting line (no chips) and took off pretty fast. I didn't want to stare at my Garmin too much, but I was curious about what my hard effort was getting me. I was happy when I saw my pace was consistently under 8 minutes. Mile 1 - 7:39.

I did have a few goals. My A+ goal, which I did not expect to achieve (and did not) was a PR. My A goal was sub-24. My A- goal was every mile sub-8. And my B goal was just staying under 25 minutes.

I figured the A+ goal was probably gone when mile 1 was not sub-7:30. My pattern in 5K's is to do the first mile quite fast and slow a little in the rest (because I can't sustain that pace).

Miles 2 and 3 were a mental game, telling myself to keep pushing and not let people pass me (only a few did, all males I believe). Once I was into mile 3 I started picking landmarks to run to, in an effort to keep my pace up. I actually managed to run mile 3 slightly faster than mile 2! Although my Garmin dipped over 8 occasionally, I was able to keep my average under. Mile 2 - 7:56. Mile 3 - 7:52!

Goal A- was clearly going to be met and for the last tenth I tried to push myself as close to the puke threshhold as I could. My math wasn't good enough to know if I had a shot at my A goal.

But as I neared the finish line I saw the 23 disappear from the clock and I poured myself over the finish line at 24:20. (Though not a PR, turns out that was a one second course PR for me. Haha.) Final pace for .12 mile was about 7:45.

I decided to wait around for the age group awards because you never know! I've never won an AG award in this race because there are two specific women (plus an unknown third) who always beat me. But as it turns out, at least the two weren't there today and I ended up winning second place in AG! (Hence the red ribbon I am wearing.) And the guy who was announcing awards commented that there were a LOT of women in the 40-49 age group!

So, hopefully I can use this AG win to collect free swag from Lucy. (I wrote a previous post about this contest, or you can check it out at the Lucy website.) I was hesitant to submit my 3rd place AG from the Monkey Run, since I was technically 4th (the first place woman was also the overall winner). But this one should be "clean." So we'll see how it works. Cause if there's one thing I need it's more running clothes! Or more stuff from Lucy! Hahaha.
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