Plano Pacers Fresh Start 5K 1/25/14
The
web page has Run Evaluator, that you enter your distance, time, age and gender
and put you into category of fitness walker to national competitor. Very good runners were having fun
punching in their good race times and commenting. I figured the calculator is giving you lower than what you
want to hear and keep you pumped up about your training.
Originally
I signed up with another 5k early February again, but my husband, Tony has a
huge concern about the race location and at the same time, I found Sunday race which
offers 5 miles. I have wanted to
check out the run club and Coach Todd approved, so I signed up as a
member. Originally he wanted to
assign 4 miles run, so in the spec, there was one mile warm up before the race.
I
did a couple of Du in 2013 that involves 2 miles runs before and after the bike
and my first 5k. Then went into my
annual fun of Spinervals Challenge all December and didn’t run at all. I started my run focus couple of months
in 2014, my first A race (Coach Todd might have me train through) of 10k in
Feb. 22nd. Although he
ordered VO2 test at Lifetime Fitness, the technician and Coach agreed that it
was not done right and he is still giving me workouts with Perceived
Effort. Then we met for video run
analysis. Then only a couple of
days ago, he gave me the first interval-like pick-up exercise. I was, sort of, starting to enjoy
running more.
The
race is held in the park that Tony often, so I figured this race is not going
to take away our precious time together on the weekend. I should reserve Saturday to be ride
day as much as possible and keep Sunday for running as much as I can. But I wanted to check out the group and
their monthly race. After all, we
belong to local cycling club, so why not run club?
Coach
was pretty excited and his instructions for today’s race were “Run with an 8
RPE! Record your time and have FUN!”.
I was thinking maybe we could use this data to estimate zones using as a
field test. I got to the park
early enough, but people were already there setting things up and runners
warming up. I was thinking,
runners are thin. I am used to
seeing fairly thin population of 20’s on campus, but once I get out to the real
world of Texas, I know the story is different. I went to the table to pick up my personal bib that I reuse,
but the person who is in charge has not shown yet. So I decided to turn the watch on to get 1-mile warm up
recorded. While I was walking
around, I heard loudspeaker announcement started. Then I heard if you are over 190 pounds male or over 150
pounds female, we get to Clydesdale /Athena category. USAT is 165 pounds for female, so maybe this USAT&F rules. I rather hate to admit, but I am still
a couple of pounds above that limit.
I remember Adam was going back and forth about racing as Clydesdale or
not, but as far as limited race records, I saw, it could be just showing up
means podium. Because I was not
going to get my official bib today, I picked up temporary one and went to see
the guy and he put my number on the computer.
So
now I am looking around to see who could be my competitors in Athena. I found two definitely bigger girls
than I am, but from there it is hard to tell because they are usually taller
than I am. Most of them were
dressed with run specific clothing and race T-shirts from different races and
sure looked like what they are doing and looked fast!
So
I finally saw people were gathering up and figured that is the start line. I went all the way to the back and
found one of the girls that I initially thought was my category
competitor. Then we started and it
took a while I saw the line and I thought I started Garmin. Immediately I learned that people
around me are going to run a lot slower than I am. So I passed a chunk of people and ran inside the parking
lot, avoiding some barricade for construction in the parking lot. When we did a small loop to exit the
parking lot to the park, I realized that I had not started the watch. GRRR. They had 0.5-mile sign so, I compared the watch distance and
figured I missed about 0.25-0.3 miles.
When
I was warming up, the watch was giving me usual 180-190 bpm and I could not
figure out if it really is what it is or it is acting up. But it stayed that way for a while, so
I started to think maybe that is my race heart rate. Maybe my run heart rate is 15 beats higher than bike. About 1 mile in, the fastest male started
to come back. I was looking who
comes and it took a while to see one woman who was running with a fast
man. Then a lot of men, but I
started to think, maybe I am not too bad on female classification, either. Then turnaround point came and as
Spinervals Teammates do, I took the water and walked around aid station. Then one lady passed me there. But this is second half. Even with limited race experience, my
second half always looks better than the first half. Not because I get stronger necessarily, but people start to
lose. The gaps between people seem
to be getting bigger now. I looked
my heart rate and now it was around 170.
I thought maybe THIS is my race heart rate and I went out too
early. Not knowing the course, I
kept underestimating the distance hoping the turnaround is soon. When I got back to the lake area, I
looked for the finish line and it felt longer than I wanted. Then I saw cadence number went down 150’s
and thought that is not a good idea.
I was keeping in mind about arm swings that Coach Todd taught me all
along, but at this point, it was maybe half a mile to go and I thought I could
use my last energy left. Then I
passed this lady and then saw another one ahead of me. There were quite a few photographers on
course. I saw photo album of the
last race and they were posting photos for free without nasty writing in the
middle to claim copyright, so I made sure to observe if they were taking photos
of me. I finally got to the finish
line and there was a man who was scanning the bar code on the bib. The display said 31:17. Then I was so concerned about not
forgetting the temporary bib and forgot to turn of Garmin! I thought I am pretty sure I was top 3
of Athena and possibly pretty good position female overall.
So
far all I have is this Garmin data that is too short, so I am not sure if this
is better than the other day as it was a very flat course. Coach Todd was surprised to see heart rate numbers and asked if they were right. Results: Took 1st in Athena and would have been second in AG. (Garmin Data)