Thank you so much for your comments on Skye’s race recap. It meant the world to her.
Rewind to last Saturday and my 5k. I swear, the hardest part about racing sometimes is just having to eat really early in the morning. A slice of bread and a Fairlife for me. I used to focus just on carbs before a race, but learned last year, before my trail race, that I perform best when I get some protein, too. Oh, I also had an Alani. I had to go for the hard stuff (caffeine-wise ;)… the Fun Run was a lot that week.
Jess and I met up and started our warm-up to pick up our bibs at the 5k starting line. We got there, and I realized I HADN’T SIGNED UP YET… I thought for sure I did, but I must not have hit submit or something silly. Luckily, they let me sign up there; they were very organized, and I was not. We then caught up with our friend, McKenzie (SHE WON), did 2 strides (2 miles total for the morning), and lined up.
Can we talk about that rush of anxiety that sets in right before the gun goes off? No bueno. I feel much better once I get moving.
Miles 1 and 2, I felt like an Olympian. We hit 6:01, then 5:49! We didn’t listen to music and didn’t want to focus on what our watches were saying (I swear it freaks me out if I’m running faster than I planned on and makes me slow down) other then when each mile beeped… and then mile 3 hit, and the pain hit me head-on. I thought a lot about Skye not quitting when things got hard for her, and ran 6:01 for mile 3, then as fast as I could to the finish line.
Andrew and the crew were at the end, cheering so loud for me.
Everyone’s watches said the course was long, so I ran an official time of 19:12 (but in my head I’m listening to Strava telling me I ran an 18:30 for the 5k distance;).
JESS TOOK SECOND! I love getting to train and race with her. Also, I googled why my gums were so much whiter than normal post race, and I guess the blood was recruited to every other spot in my body because I was pushing myself to its limit 
They made me feel very cool.
Have you ever had lemonade right after a race? They were giving out Raising Cane’s lemonade, and now I want this after every race from here on out.
Okay, a few more quick thoughts:
*I’m proud of myself for signing up for the race distance that scares me the most. The 5k gets me so out of my comfort zone that the runner’s high afterward is even higher. My 5k and marathon paces are usually pretty similar, but I feel like that wasn’t the case this time!
*I love races. I love the whole environment. I love the community. I love how you get to bond with each other out there. I love it all.
*My plan is to sign up for a lot of shorter races because they help me to push myself harder than I would in a workout… Races make you fast + the more you do, the less anxious you get about races.
*Strength training has paid off… I run much less and do fewer workouts, and I ran pretty close to my 5k PR from a few years ago, when I was running much more.
*Running is wild… we did 800s at a 5:55 pace on the Tuesday before the race, and they were so hard we cut the workout from 6 down to 4. And then, a few days later, we basically ran that pace for the entire race?!
*I lied to myself before the race, telling myself I would just hold a pace that felt like I was just dipping my pinky toe into the pain cave. I told myself it was just going to be a tempo. By mile three, every cell of my body was deep into that cave. Lying works to get me to push start, and I truly believe my lies before I push start.
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Now for a few tangents:
*This was a picture from before the Fun Run/set-up/logistics began on Friday:
*After the Fun Run. I am NOT proud of how much caffeine I went through to make it happen, but it was probably the most successful year yet that we’ve had, and I’m proud of that part;)
*I treated myself to Scotchmallows afterward.
*8 miles in the canyon and speed on the docket for today. I am excited about how excited I am about training. It feels like the good ol’ days. (loving this tank with a built-in sports bra)
*These kiddos want to get faster for soccer and football. They asked us to help them, and Andrew used Chat GPT to come up with a plan for them, and they started it up. I did not join them in their 10-yard sprint out of fear of ripping my hamstring off, but I cheered loudly.
*Brooke makes the prettiest yogurt bowls.
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What do you lie to yourself about?
Before a race, what do you do best, food-wise?
What race distance are you least likely to sign up for?
Have a favorite type of yogurt?
The post My Race Recap + Tangents! first appeared on The Hungry Runner Girl.