My first race of 2014 was the We Believe in Our Children 5k in Pensacola, Florida. It was a rousing success! Below are the gritty details.
STATS
You can view the official stats below, or for those of you who might be skeptical, here are the official documents.
- #34 of 215 men
- #7 out of 14 in my age group (35 through 39)
- 24:47.56 total time
- 7:59 per mile pace
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- I woke up at 5:30 AM and fixed oatmeal for breakfast – this was a smart move. I had plenty of fuel for the entire race.
- I was fast – for the first half-mile or so, I shook off the nerves and warmed up the engines, then blasted through the rest of the course. About 2.5 miles into it, I was feeling pretty fatigued, but kept the peddle to the floor.
- I had fun – given that I really, really dislike running in the cold, my mind and body held up well.
WHAT WENT WRONG
- It was cold, much more cold than what we, in the Florida panhandle, are accustomed to; at race time, the temperature hovered around 40º
- I lined up too far back in the finish line, behind kids and other slowish people. I didn’t know they would be so much slower than me. I’m hoping they do a better job of putting the faster people in the front next time. There were even some walkers in the first group of people.
- There weren’t any discernible mile markers on the course – though my RunKeeper kept me mostly aware of where I was – I only have the time notifications set for every 10 minutes and don’t have the distance enabled, meaning it only tells me 10 minutes (then 20) have passed, and since I didn’t wear headphones and had the volume all the way down, it wasn’t super easy to know where I was.
TAKEAWAYS
- Running is fun, even when it’s too hot, too cold, too early or too late. If you have doubts about your ability to enjoy a race, know that you inevitably will – to runners, running is always full of awesome!
- 5k’s don’t offer very good swag – I can’t complain as I scored a free entry (and the race raised money for local public schools), but It would be nice, right? In this case we got a free long-sleeve t-shirt and some snacks/drinks post-race.
Congrats on your first race of 2014! I’m in Maryland, so you know I have to give you a hard time about 40 being cold 🙂 I know, it’s all relative. Temperature can make all the difference. That being said, I like how you said you can’t ever really have a “bad” race as long as you come out unscathed. Great job, and stay warm 🙂
Thanks Michele for reading and commenting. This morning I woke up to a dusting of snow! I prefer running in the heat and humidity actually, and look forward to doing that again while enjoying what is given to me.
Congrats on your 5k finish! My fastest 5k last year was in 40 degree weather. Being cold makes me want to run faster to warm up! I still prefer it to be warmer for a race, but that’s because I’ve been living in Florida my whole life and I’m spoiled by the good weather we usually have here. I’m running a 5k in Orlando this weekend and it’s looking like we will be in the high 60s or low 70s at start time!
Thanks Heather! I recently incorporated some speed work in the last two months, so it’s hard to say if it’s the weather or the extra work that allows for more speed for me. Have fun at your 5k this weekend!