Well this race went hella sideways for me, but I’ll admit it was kind of my own fault. I was feeling extremely cocky from my last two races – I had knocked off a whopping six minutes in my half marathon, three minutes in my 10k, so surely I MUST be faster for a 5K too right?
Wrong. So wrong.
I did all the things you shouldn’t do before a race. I ate only 90 minutes before the race start time (when I generally require at least 120 minutes). I didn’t drink enough water all day. And I didn’t train nearly as much for this one as I had my previous two phenomenal races. (Yes, I had done some sprints, but I hadn’t done enough distance runs in the weeks leading up to this race.) And yet, I was still feeling pretty sure about myself – this was a race I had run many times before, I had always put out times under 27 minutes, and I was in pretty good racing shape (hell I even think I look in damn good shape in the photos they took!).
Well, since I’d eaten too close to the race start time, I got an absolutely MASSIVE side stitch after one kilometer. Usually I can ditch the side stitches by breathing in and out slowly and deeply and by doing arm windmills (yes, while running – I look like a total fool while doing this). But I could not get rid of that damn stitch. It hurt so bad it was actually painful to raise my arms over my head, and no amount of breathing was clearing it out. So I spent the bulk of the race in a lot of pain. I tried pushing through the pain, but side stitches often make me feel like I can’t catch my breath, so it was just a freaking miserable feeling.
Also, bizarrely, they changed this course to include an extra 200-300 meter switchback down a sidestreet halfway up University. I have NO idea where that came from or why they added it in after many, many years of this not being part of the course. My guess is they were trying to make the distance 100% accurate, but does that mean that every other year I’d run this the course had been short of a full 5k??
So I ran as best I could, and I trundled through the finish line well over 27 minutes. I was pretty horrified. I was expecting to at LEAST put out 26:15 even at my slowest, because I truly had been expecting to FINALLY break under 26 minutes. No such luck! Not even close. And that’s what I get for being cocky! Eesh.
Also, I had to laugh – I was the focus of no one’s camera during this event. I’m in the bright orange tank, and I’m always intruding on someone else’s photo!
Race Results
- Finish Time: 27:17
- Pace: 5:28 per kilometer
- Overall placement: 318/1295
- Age group placement (Female 30-39 years): 29/195
- Gender placement (F): 69/641
Dude. So I’m sitting here totally jealous that you had a “bad race” and still got 27:17! But I know how you feel. When I did my half marathon in Philly, I wore something new – okay, 2 things new – and that ended poorly. I had picked up a race belt so I didn’t have to attach my bib to my shirt and, yeah… my shirt was slippery and the belt wouldn’t stay in place so I had to flip it to the back which meant no pictures! I also spent so much time messing with my shirt and the belt that it slowed me down and took my focus off of running. I think we can be our own worst enemy at times so while it wasn’t your goal time, given that you were in pain and things didn’t go as planned, I still think your time was good and it’s never totally bad for our body to give our brain a love tap every once in a while 😉
Hah, it’s all so relative isn’t it? This was actually one of the first races I ever ran back in 2006, and I think I had a time of like 35 minutes or something… which, by comparison now, I never would’ve thought I could run this fast back then!
New clothing is the worst and what you just described is my nightmare. Fiddling with stuff you have on you is AWFUL. I want to be completely unaware of what I’m running in, and when it’s moving around, sliding…. it’s seriously the absolute worst!