Sunrise 8K started, surprise surprise, at sunrise. I can’t
say I’m used to waking up at 4:45 for a local running race but that’s at least
my normal weekday alarm time. However, that doesn’t mean I was happy to wake up
that early on a Saturday. My one positive thought was at least we could avoid
the heat since it was going to get to mid-90s that day. Wrong! Ok it might not
have been super hot yet but it was humid.
I’m still trying to feel out what my pace should be for
different distances. I decided to make my goal time 46 minutes since that was
right at my goal pace for my November half marathon. I figured if I couldn’t
meet this goal I was royally screwed at any chance of meeting the half goal. Beyond
my time goal, a random goal I threw in the mix was to not get passed by someone
pushing a stroller. It’s never a good feeling to get passed by someone pushing
a stroller. I figured I had that one in the bag because I only saw one
stroller.
I met up with Ashlee at the race. We did our slow mile
warm up, hit up the bathrooms and got to the start line. Although starting the
race together it takes only a few seconds for the distance to grow. I quickly
forget about her and settle into my pace. Not too far into the race I saw my
extra goal pass by me with the stroller…fail.
Always amazed by the guy running barefoot. Not necessarily amazed in a
good way. I just imagine stepping on a very sharp object. I might run barefoot
on the beach but the road is a whole different story.
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| Start of race |
First mile, below 9 minutes. Ok… good but not good.
Faster than the 9:12 goal pace which is awesome but this might mean I’ll tire
out well before 5 miles. Second mile, faster. Third mile, a second faster than
mile 2. At this point I’ve run a new 5K PR on an 8K. I’m not going to make it.
This is also around the time that the hills start which I was not expecting.
Then suddenly, 3.9 miles in I see Ashlee…walking. I had been debating about
walking and was trying really hard to silence those thoughts. As soon as I saw
her it was all over and I was walking next to her. Luckily a coworker I had passed
a bit earlier back came up behind up and literally pushed us. That was the motivation
I needed to start running again. But here’s the thing. Once I start walking, I’m
done for. I never walk just once. I start to walk more and more often. So that
motivated from the push died very fast and I was walking again. In total I
walked less than 1/4 mile but it was enough to kill my last mile time and piss
me off. That’s worse is I swore I only walked twice but after looking at
Garmin, I was wrong. I walked a third time. I was still able to sprint it out
the last bit of the race. And by sprint I mean still running slower than the
pace of the first wave of people to finish.
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| Looking like death |
Time: 44:21
I beat my goal time. Although I should be happy with that
time, I’m not because I could have done better. Instead of running slower I
gave up and walked. Three times. I told myself beforehand that I would run the
whole race and I didn’t. But I will take this as a lesson and move on. Lesson
to self: When you see you are running too fast after the first mile, slow down.
Don’t go faster.
All in all it was a decent race though. I like the idea
of running at sunrise despite the temperature seeming like later in the day. Nothing
like being saturated in sweat from head to toe. But at least I had an ugly
sleeveless race shirt to throw on before getting in the car (doesn’t hurt to
have an extra layer to soak through before the towel on the seat). And to end
on a positive note, I got a PR! (I’ve never done a 8K before, ssshhh.)
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