Hooray for a Good 5k

Week 17 March 8-14

Sunday- 14 miles at 8:11 pace

Monday- 2 miles with Lucy at 8:23 pace

Tuesday- 8 miles at 7:58 pace

Wednesday- 2 miles with Lucy at 8:12 pace

          Then 6 miles at 7:12 pace with 10x2 minute pick-ups, 1 minute easy

Thursday- 2 miles with Lucy at 8:34 pace

          Then 4 miles at 8:30 pace

Friday- 5 miles at 8:26 pace

Saturday- We Run With Boston 5k in Keene

          11 minute warm up, 12 minute cool down

          5k in 19:28 (16:16 pace)

Total miles: 48.5

Comments: I’m pleased with my 5k race! I was supposed to run the St. Patty’s 5k in Salisbury which is part of the race series I entered, but it was postponed until April 11. I really wanted to run a 5k race, so I did a quick coolrunning search, and saw that two runners who are raising money for Boston Marathon charities were hosting a race. One runner was running for Dana Farber and the other for MR8 (for Martin Richard). There was also prize money which was a bonus, though I wasn’t banking on it (no pun intended). I figured even if I didn’t win anything, I would be supporting two important charities, and I especially felt it was important to support MR8. I can’t imagine losing my son, and to think of Martin’s mother breaks my heart. My week had gone pretty well for running, and I was happy with my Wednesday workout and long run.

The night before the race, Isaac woke up after only three hours-he had been sleeping 5-6 hours. Then he woke up again a few hours later. But in the morning, I felt fine. On my warm up run, the roads were a bit icy so I knew I’d have to be careful on the roads. I was with a girl for about a mile or so and she helped me get out to a good start. A boy (I mean, I say boy but he’s probably in college for all I know-these “kids” look so young to me now) and I pulled away, and we were running side by side throughout the entire race. It was so helpful. He pulled away the last 200 or so. When I saw my time I was excited. I had hoped to run at least 6:40 pace, but really hoped to do 6:30 pace. This was 6:16 pace. The race was advertised as being 3.2 miles (which would put me at 6:05 pace). I measured it and got 3.18. But I will call it a 5k. I did much better than I thought, and it makes me more excited about upcoming races. Oh, and the best part of the race was seeing Ian and Isaac cheering me on at the finish line. Well, Ian was cheering. Isaac was sleeping.