The weather ended up being 31 degrees, winds 22 gusting to 35 from the north, ~18 degree wind chill. But I already paid, and I've never run an actual 5K so I never thought about skipping it.
The race started out going north so the first mile was almost all direct headwind, the second mile was about neutral overall and the last was a tailwind. I was happy at first that we would get the brutal headwind mile out of the way first but it ended up being my undoing. Splits were 7:09, 7:24, 7:20, then I never stopped the watch.
The race was small (guessing 50 people or so). After a minute or so, I was in 4th place, where I would stay the entire time (like I said, small race). I knew I needed 7:05s to break 22 but I shouldn't have tried to get it on that first mile into gale-force winds! Anyway I was jelly after that. The last two-thirds were total misery but I still gave it everything. I remember taking my gloves off and holding them in the last mile and it felt like my hands barely had the strength to grasp them! I'm not sure what kind of effort that 7:09 was worth into that wind but it was obviously more than my fitness allowed - I guess it was like sprinting a mile and then expecting to race 2 more right afterward. I've run 3-mile tempos at a faster overall pace than my race today - oh well, lesson learned!
I don't even know if they're even going to have official results online but if they do I'll update; I think I got 1st or 2nd in my age group but I didn't hang around; it was a bit cold anyway.
**Right after lunch (ouch) I did 2 lazy TM miles to get to 30 for the week. Still kind of disappointed about that time but now that I've thought about it maybe it was just dumb racing instead of bad fitness. I shouldn't have tried to stay on goal pace running into a brick wall of wind and expect to recover. Ah well... I'll be smarter for the 10K next month.
***Last update - they posted results and the 22:32 was correct. I was #1 in my AG...out of 2 total! #4 of 44 racing that day. There were 21 no-shows, maybe the horizontal sleet scared people away. |