I finished in 44:33, with an average pace of 14:21.
Yesterday's experience, taught me that training for the miles is only one part of an actual race.
The other part is dealing with the weather conditions, the route, and the people.
Melanie and I left my house at 5:30 to catch the bus down to Grant Park. It was Cold - temps were reading below 30F. It didn't seem so bad as we were walking to the bus stop, and then walking from the Congress drop to the tents in Grant park, as long as you were moving it was bearable.
Then came the wait. We got there about 6:45, and found Shelly. The start time for the 5k was 7:40. Trying to keep that warmth for an hour did not work. At some point we all had to check whatever we didn't want to carry for the race, so there went the hoodies and the sweats that had help fend off the cold - I did this about 7:10.
FINALLY, the race starts. By that I mean the gun goes off. It takes a full 15 minutes for my pace group (I put myself in with the 13 min mile group) to actually cross the start line.
In the first 4 minutes, the following was going through my head - "WTF, OWW, COLD, Hey don't elbow me, Oh this person stopped gotta move over so I don't plow into them".
It was a zoo. It took the first mile to even warm up my muscles. All thoughts of breathing, form, pace were out the window. I was just trying to stay upright and keep moving forward. With all that said, I cross the 1 mile marker in 13:35, which is not a bad time for me at all.
My other learning experience was navigating the water stations. I lost a couple minutes in this area because I made the newbie mistake of stopping and STANDING in a line to grab a cup, not able to see the other 8 tables that were further down with no people. There were people weaving back and forth, darting, it was a zoo.
About 25 minutes into the run, I hit my groove. It felt great!! Before then, I'd be alternating run/walk with 2-3min run and 1:30 walk. I did from 24:30 to 31:30 all running, and didn't feel winded or forced at all. I had to slow down when I hit a block of people that were having to go around the bend on the outside of the Planetarium walk, and then it was just one huge massive block for the last 3/4 of a mile. It was 2 switchbacks to finally get back to Columbus Dr and the FINISH stretch. More and more my endurance is increasing to do longer stretches. The form is definitely helping, from smaller steps to using smaller elbow movements back to let gravity and physics help sync a little better.
Next up is the 8k Rudolph Ramble in December. Its still going to be cold, more distance, but less people. This is slowly but surely happening...
0 comments:
Post a Comment