Monday, September 3, 2007

Fired Up 5K

Conditions:
Temperature: 78
Humidity: 92%
Me: Still hacking up a lung

If I hadn't already paid a few weeks back, I wouldn't have gone this morning. I had a not so good night of sleep, and besides that I still was trying to cough crap up when I woke up.

That kept up throughout the 3.1 miles. I tell you though I do take some comfort in knowing that even the really fast kids struggled this morning. From what I hear the front runners were all slower than their average times. It was brutal this morning.

There were a couple of times where I almost just gave up, but I didn't. I figured you know just freaking keep running and finish. You already know its not a PR day for the distance. I did PR the course/race though from last year.

Here are the splits from LAST year:

Mile 1: 10:19
Mile 2: 11:04
Mile 3: 11:20
last .1 : 9:08 pace


Here are the splits from THIS year:

Mile 1: 9:37 (a 42 sec improvement)
Mile 2: 10:21 (a 43 sec improvement)
Mile 3: 10:33 (a 47 sec improvement)
last .1 : 9:30 pace

A definite improvement no doubt, but I had NOTHING left at the end. And I actually walked the 2nd mile water stop; might have been 30 seconds or less, not sure. I was having a really hard time breathing and the coughing was just too much for me. This is where I seriously thought about just quitting.

Eh, in the grand scheme of things I'm ok with it. I am just really sick of trying to race in this heat. I can run and train in it no problem. Other than that I am over it. To me today was speed work, nothing more as far as I am concerned.

I'll race the cross country at the end of September, but then its just me training for Houston in January.

Don't get me wrong I will still run the Clear Lake 10, the Houston Half (both of which I hope to PR) and I suppose I have to run the 25K this year (as suggested by Sean). I was a cheerleader at that race last year and I am not looking forward to those loops as I recall hearing about it sucking last year. Eh, it is what it is. At least I know I will have a PR for the distance since I've never 'raced' a 25K before. :o)

Peace.

9 comments:

Vic said...

Hey, gutsy gal!!! Tough running out there. Great to see you as always. now enjoy your bananas.

Steve Bezner said...

Nice running in some nasty conditions this morning. I can vouch for June leaving it all on the course this morning. We were a little concerned about when you finished and collapsed in that chair.

Time to Party!

Anonymous said...

Happy Labor Day JB! Gut wrenching out there this morning, good times none the less!

Steeeve

Timmy said...

Congrats on finishing!

L*I*S*A said...

Congrats on the great time and new PR!!

Pony and Petey said...

For what it's worth, I REALLY like the 25k course. You get to see lots of peeps for the whole way, there's no traffic to worry about, you know right where the water stops are after that first loop and it's got a fast finish.

PLUS...a really cool wind shirt!

Great job this morning! Whenever someone wants to quit REALLLLY badly but keeps on running, they get my high fives!

Anonymous said...

Good job. You did not achieve your numeric PR but I believe you established a new altitude PR, temperature PR, humidity PR, time of day PR and wardrobe PR. Have you thought of adding strenuous yardwork to your training regimen?

ali said...

Great results considering the conditions ... of both you and the weather!

Big improvement over last year.

Jess said...

Great job!