Race Report: Run for the Trees 5K 2011

This morning I ran the Run for the Trees 5K for the 4th year in a row. I love this race because it is for a great cause, it has a gorgeous and mostly shaded course, and it's within biking distance from home. I've PRed at this race every year.

• 2008 = 0:42:57 
• 2009 = 0:33:12 (-9:45)
• 2010 = 0:32:10 (-1:02)
• 2011 = 0:30:26 (-1:44)

I was chasing my elusive sub-30 5K today. I gave it all I had, but I came up 27 seconds short. However, that is still a sub-10 min/mi pace, and almost 2 minutes faster than last year's PR, so I'm really pleased.  I'm also pleasantly surprised at how well I placed compared to last year's race.

• overall = 478 / 1215 (top 39%) 
• ag = 34 / 103 (top 33%)
• gender = 192 / 733 (top 26%)
• clock = 30:58
• chip time = 30:26
• pace = 9:47.7

The best part was running the entire race with Jason. He helped pushed me to do this well, but I just couldn't push any harder. What's really annoying is not that my legs don't have the speed, is that I could not get my breathing under control to get rid of the side stitches that kept popping up. I simply have neglected yoga and building the core strength I need to push through when it gets tough to control my breathing.

Like last year, we biked 6.5 miles to the start at an easy pace then I ate a Gu Roctane 15 minutes before the start as we walked to line up. We ran using 4:1 intervals, and walked through the one water stop. I was going to skip the last interval, but I had to catch my breath and try to get rid of the side stitch to finish strong. I still wonder if I would have shaved off those extra 26 seconds, but I don't think so because I'd probably would have run slower because it hurt so bad.

This is what I really hate about 5Ks. I push so hard that it hurts and think that I can't possibly dig any deeper, but 5 minutes after I finish I feel fine and then I begin to doubt myself. But at least now I know that it was not a fluke when Jason and I ran sub-31 before, and I love that sub-35 is easy now.

I probably won't try to run a 5K this fast again for a while. I'm taking a break from race for now until the next Galloway session starts in June. I may do a duathlon in May, but that will probably be a last minute decision and just for a fun challenge. I'm going to run for fun and without a plan and just enjoy it. I want to add speed work and train for another marathon, then running a sub-30 5K won't be so hard.