13.1 marathon Karhu 5k race recap (AKA that time I got 2nd place woman OVERALL)

"The time I got 2nd OVERALL woman in a 5K."


Stats:

23:41* I believe my 4th fastest 5K.

2 of 232 Women 


21 of 378 Overall (Top 5%)

Photo from Maggie

Amanda, Kayla, Zach, Sara, Maggie, Deanna
Amanda, Cary
ME Kim, Britt

It was very cool to meet the other Chicagoland bloggers in real life after following their blogs for so long :)

I won this entry from Emily @ Out and About on Monday- which made my week! :)





After cheering for the first few waves of Half marathoners, I got in a nice warmup of slow running and about 8 strides to get my heart going. My plan was to keep it comfortably hard and have fun. This wasn't a goal race and I really havent been doing much speed work as my goal has been to get up to running 30-50 miles a week comfortably.






Mile 1: 7:10  I believe the first half mile I ran in 3:20..  UH OH!


My Garmin also decided to change the way it was displaying, so I had a hard time telling what my pace was.

At the turn around I saw that I was 2nd woman overall. It now became my mission to keep it that way. 


I also saw Meghan out on the course! :)


I kept thinking how I did not want the title of this post to be "That time I was 2nd overall for 2.5 miles and then got passed by 2 ladies at the finish. and blew it!" I also thought how much I hated running {fast}- why am I torturing myself with this??. HA!

Miles 2 and 3 were in 7:40's... I was struggling to keep moving. Side stitch was intense and It was taking everything inside of me to just keep running at this point. I even had to grab water at mile 1 and 2.5 because my mouth was so dry. Ive never gotten water in a shorter race before.







I saw the sign above when WW and I were walking around later in the day. It pretty much sums up how I felt after mile 1.

As I finally entered the South Shore Cultural center, I knew it was less than a tenth of a mile to the finish, and just kept telling myself to keep going, while looking over my shoulder for other women. Before the finish, the top 2 men in the half blew past me.

As soon as I finished, the announcer read my name and confirmed I was 2nd woman to finish! I was so elated to be done, and must admit,pretty darn pleased with myself for holding onto my place in the race and earning my 1st ever "Podium" spot.






Immediately after finishing, someone put a green band on my wrist and told me I could go to the VIP area (above) to chill out before the awards ceremony- and could have a guest come join me. A reporter from Competitor(?) interviewed me afterwards asking me how the race went. I think I mumbled something about side stitch and it being difficult and hot out there.

Top 3 finishers in the 5K! Im in the middle. Thank you Britt for snapping this gem! :)





My 2nd place medal. Yeah, while I did feel so happy to be standing up there, It was also incredibly humbling standing next to the winner (Gray shirt) who sailed in over 5 minutes ahead of me and who ran the Olympic marathon trials earlier this year!

I will cherish this memory for a long time. Usually I am around 20th in my age group and around 100th woman for the "smaller" half marathons here. (I dont do many 5K's so I have nothing to compare to)

To come in as 2nd woman was crazy and something I never thought possible (especially with a 23:41).



Post race Wonderful, Wonderful and I went out to Revolution Brewing to get brunch. Their eggs Benedict was amazing.

Lessons Learned:

• Dont go out too Fast. Ever. Negative splits or even splits are preferable.
• I do not know how to "race" 5Ks.
• Check the Garmin beforehand to ensure it will display properly.
• 5Ks are "Lung Burners"
• Drink a bit more before a race regardless of distance when its hot out.
• Eat something when I get home before eating loads of food to avoid getting very sick later on.
• Take a salt tab post race (even 5K) to replace the lost sodium-potassium, etc. to avoid getting sick.

Next up:

This week starts marathon training. Only 14 weeks until the Fox Valley marathon! Im so incredibly excited to have this lady as my Coach to guide me through training. I'm also super proud of my WW for starting Chicago Marathon training this past week and can't wait to run with him in October! 

Cheers!

- xaar