Summer Series Race #5 - 5K

Today was the last race of the ARR Summer Series. The race was at South Mountain and had some rolling, mild hills.  The weather was "cool" for an August morning and the wind created a nice breeze but did provide a little headwind in patches. For this race I had preset my goal but I didn't actually put it in writing.  Because my 3rd mile slips so much lately during a race, I set the goal to run the 3rd mile hard.  I ran the 3rd mile faster (it was downhill).  So even though the race wasn't a PR and the first 2 miles weren't overly fast, and I felt very tired on the last mile, I hit my goal and ran the 3rd mile fast.

RACE HIGHS

• Seeing Yong in front of me.  Because he's a much stronger runner than me I knew he must be struggling but it also meant that I was doing well.

RACE LOWS

• This is a high and a low, like so many things can be. My friend Jan dropped out of the race around mile 2.  Since we are almost the same age, I knew I moved up one spot in my age group. Luckily though she's not injured.
• I wanted to meet Sally Meyerhoff after the race but never saw her.  Sally is an elite marathoner that is local and I follow her blog. I saw her warming up before and during the race ( it was an out/back course) but not at the end. Since she won the 5K in 17 something, she was probably cooling down by time I came in.  Next time.

RACE STATS

• 23:23 splits 7:22, 7:28, 7:10
• 4th in my age group out of 43
• 235th out of 701

GOALS

• Run the 3rd mile hard

MENTAL GAME

• The 3rd mile was tough.  My legs were tired and I started the negative self-talk. I recognized it and changed it. I told myself to stay present and that this was a new day, a new race, a new experience.

FUN MOMENTS

• I got some yummy Jamba Juice and talked with Janessa from Ragnar.  I told them about my love letter to Ragnar that I wrote after running Wasatch and there was lots of feedback for Ragnar.