Race Report: Jim Payne 5k

Yesterday afternoon, Jason and I ran the Jim Payne Blue Ribbon Run for the Kids 5K in Sanford. Time-wise, this was my worse 5K in 8 months -- 2008.09.13: Autumn Rock n Run 5K - 38:08 (chip) -- but I made the best of it and had a blast catching up with friends pre & post race.

Since it worked so well at the last 5k, we went for a 1 mile slow run to warm-up before the race. I ran the mile non-stop in 11 minutes, which felt like a comfortable pace. In retrospect, this probably hindered my performance rather than help it since it was so hot that my muscles were surely warm enough already.

Despite lining up in the back, I went out too fast and finished mile 1 in 10:30 (even with 2 walk breaks). I knew I was in trouble since this was the pace I hoped to average and there was no way I was going to keep it up in that heat. Sure enough, I bonked at the halfway point and couldn't recover.

At the one water stop (there should have been more), I threw water on my head and shirt, which I never do. I had a cramp and felt a bit ill, and I decided that my health was more important than any goal. I knew my goal of running sub-33 was probably out of reach anyway, and I didn't want to kill myself for nothing, so I walked most of the 2nd half of the race with bursts of running thrown in here and there, but I just couldn't sustain it. My cramp wouldn't let up and my legs felt heavy. I am sure the pretzel we shared before the race didn't help.

I finished in 37:14 for a pace of 11:58 -- at least I ran a sub-12 pace ;) Here are my awful positive splits pace:

10:30
11:30
13:48
11:03 (.13 in 1:28)

Surprisingly, I am at peace with the results and not really disappointed with this race because I made a conscious decision to walk and not push it. Had I pushed myself and not achieved my goal, I would have felt worse physically and been disappointed. I just chucked it up to a bad day and moved on.

I ran into a ton of people I knew after the race from Orlando Women Runners, Orlando Runners Meetup Group, Orlando Runners Club, MarathonChris from twitter, as well as former coworker Kelly and her mom. After watching the awards, several of us had dinner and a great time at a Willow Tree.

Full Stats:

chip - 37:14
pace - 11:58.8
clock - 38:21
overall - 518 / 871
AG - 33
gender - 278/530