Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Post 5K Thoughts

Another race is in the books, and as I like to do after every race, I'm going to take some time to reflect on my experience and blog about what's coming up for me.

* Here is a link to the official race times. My official time is 23:03! With a pace of 7:26!! I finished third in my age group! How awesome are those stats?!? Part of me thinks it would have been better to have finished in under 23:00, but that's just nitpicking. I shaved two minutes off of my 2008 5K time.

* I gave everything I had on Saturday. My legs were churning hard and my heart rate was elevated throughout the race. There were moments during the race that I felt like I was slowing down but it wasn't for lack of trying. I was just pooped and my body was slowing down. But I overcame those moments. I didn't want to end the race and feel like I could have ran another mile or two. I wanted to end just the way I did, by feeling completely wasted.

* While the 5K wasn't necessarily daunting to me in terms of the mileage, I felt the effects of the race all day Saturday. I felt like I usually do after long runs, and honestly I don't feel that way after many long runs anymore. I wasn't caught totally off guard by that but I was a bit surprised. But the cool thing about the 5K was that I was still able to run 12 miles on Sunday. So I had the best of both worlds - a race and a long run in one weekend.

* When's my next race? I signed up for the Lefty's Family Fun Day 5K on March 27 at the California Speedway in Fontana. The cool thing about this race - aside from the fact that it is FREE - is that the course is on the track! So the same track in which Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, et al., have raced on, we'll run on. That is too cool. I'm not the biggest race fan - well, to be honest I don't really care for the sport, but having the chance to race on the course is definitely not lost on me.

* Will I try and set a new PR then? Well, I challenged Danny to a re-match, and he simply said "My next race will be the Mud Run." Thus, I won't have him pushing me that day. Does that mean I can't run a 5K in the low 23s? I have no idea. Part of me wants to relax and just run easy that day, but another part of me wants to try and break my PR. I don't know what I will decide on, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

* Some pictures that didn't make the race report:

The Bueno boys after the race

Celebrating with my girls

Well, there you go. A couple of pictures along with several thoughts.

4 comments:

Katie A. said...

I LOVE the pic of you and your girls - they are just as proud of you as you are of them!
You can totally smoke that time in the next 5K - you have a better sense of what you need to do now so that will help you tackle it easier! Congrats!

Willoughby said...

The family pics are great!

That's so cool that you get to run on the track in your next race. I'm not a car racing fan either, but it's still cool!!

Kerrie said...

I like these post-race thoughts you do. Always interesting. Great pics!

Jill said...

Awesome race...those are rocking stats! Congrat to you!!!! You and your girls are just adorable!!! Can't wait to read about your next race!!