Oh boy. This one was a bad one. Yep. It was a bad race for me indeed.
I wound up finishing with a time of 25:15, which is my worst time for a 5K since I started racing again in 2010. That's an 8:08 mile pace, but still. I thought I could at least go sub-8 minute miles for this race, but the heat got to me. It got me good.
But, I got to run in Wilmette, which is new for me. The course is pretty good - fairly flat and residential. The race was organized - we didn't start right at 8:00, but that's alright. The post race refreshments were good and the raffle prizes at the end were awesome.
They gave away a bunch of $120 gift certificates to the new running store, Road Runner Sports, which is off the Edens Plaza, a bunch of gift certificates for Road ID, $25 gift certificates for Corner Bakery, a $120 paddle boating thing in Chicago and a Lululemon yoga stater kit.
My dad won a RoadID gift certificate which was super awesome. So yeah, if you do this race, definitely stick around for the raffle! What's the worst that can happen? Plus, if you can get a prize, they are pretty sweet. I definitely was sad that I didn't get the gift certificate or the shoes especially because one of the numbers that were called was 105 or so - so close yet so far!
So close yet so far basically would be a good sum up for my performance at the race. I actually timed it with my running app (Endomondo) so I could my splits. My app told me that I did in in 25:09, but race time was 25:15. Nevertheless. Still a crappy time.
Mile 1: I figure that I will start out "conservatively" as to have gas in the tank left for the finish. Ha. Like that happened. Evidently "conservatively" to me means go ahead and run a 7:34 mile dummy. Whoops. I was trying to shoot for an 8 minute mile... I'm serious. Oh well.
Mile 2: I do a little mental math and figure that if I can run at that same pace and come in around 15:00 for mile 2 then I have a shot at breaking 24. I get to Mile 2 a little over at 15:42 for an 8:08 mile. Much slower and getting to that 8 minute mile point. I'm pleased and figure if I can really kick it in during the last mile (or at least the last half mile) then I will make my goal.
Mile 3: Failure. I start losing it from mile 2.5 to 3.1. The heat started to get to me and the long straightaways which I usually look forward to and excel at started to just look like never-ending stretches of road. I could see people in front of me and I was trying to pick people I could maybe pick off, but it never happened. I just started to fade away.
We round a corner and I can see the cop cars, which were there when we started so I know that the sprint is near. But of course, I'm running out of gas so I can't really sprint it in. I finally round the corner into the parking lot of the school and I "sprint" it in as best as I can.
I look at the clock and it is now in the 25s. I shake my head and walk to get water feeling pretty defeated, but hey, it was like 80 degrees when we were running so I'll give myself a pat on the back for finishing and at least it was an under 8:30 performance.
I wait for my dad and we hang around for a while. And, the consensus between the two of us is that we enjoyed the race and we liked the course. And, most importantly, we know we could have run better had it not been so damn hot.
Bottom line: Would run it again (especially to smash that 25:15 time).
Pros:
- Flat, residential course
- Good refreshments post race & great raffle prizes
- Organized course
- Relatively friendly people and the runners that turn out are pretty fast (dude who won was in the 17s and woman was in the 19s)
Cons:
- Worst time ever for a 5K ever sine I started racing in 2010, but it was hot so that's ok.
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