Race Recap: Sweet Pea 5K

The course went clockwise

The Sweet Pea 5K took place Saturday, August 5, 2017 at 7:25am in Bozeman, Montana. There was also a 10K distance.

Goals
Initially, I wanted this to be a sub 8:00 m/m 5k, but after my weird week I threw that goal out the window.  Luckily, my diagnosis didn't affect my running (and don't worry, I made sure the doctors were ok with running). I knew it wasn't going to be a PR day unless something crazy happened.

Cheesin' at the start line

This will be a quick recap. Let me go mile by mile:

Mile 1: We set off and the course was a bit crowded for the first two tenths of a mile. I turned the first corner and almost ran into a little girl who stopped to walk. She was also heaving and practically crying with no parent in sight, so I had a weird moment of "should I help her?" - but honestly that probably would have terrified her more. Anyway, after that we got onto a paved trail and began to spread out. About a tenth of a mile later the paved trail changed to gravel and I already wanted to walk. My foot was sliding around on the rock dirt and I never felt like I got a good grip. We were almost all of the way down the trail when my watch buzzed 8:09. Welp, definitely no PR today.

Mile 2: We finished the trail and came out to a road. It was nice to be on asphalt, but once again I was ready to walk. Looking back, this part was all slightly uphill and maybe that's why I felt so tired (?). Let's be real: I wasn't feeling it. I allowed myself to slow down as we wound through the neighborhood. We came up to a water stop at mile 1.5 and even though I was really thirsty and considered walking through the stop, I knew if I did I wouldn't run the rest of the race. Just after the water stop we turned on the second-to-last straightaway. That got me pumped up. Mile 2: 8:15

Mile 3: We came down Willson and the 10k leader turned from his course onto ours. He was flying. It was kind of cool to see and put some pep in my step. I was also running near a very young girl in a Wonder Woman costume. I tried to concentrate on smiling at volunteers and staying with Wonder Woman. I wanted to walk, but you know, "the faster you run, the faster you're done." It helped that the entire last mile was downhill. We turned onto Main Street and I could see the finish line in the distance. About three tenths to go and it felt like forever. I sped up a little too soon, but whatever. I finished. Mile 3: 7:50 (!), .1: 7:40

Post race coffee

Final Time: 25:15
Overall: 160 / 779 (20%)
Gender: 65 / 482 (13%)
AG:  6 / 37 (16%)

Not bad for a Montana race! (The really fast people ran the 10k.) I'd definitely do this again -- plus, it was $15! Now that I know the course I think it'd be a good one for a PR - even with the dirt and gravel bits. Alex ended up running this almost 2 minutes slower than normal and still got third place in his age group! Even if I ran a PR I would have gotten 4th. Why are 30 year old ladies so fast?!?!

On the plus side, I'm almost back to my Ohio times. My most recent Montana half was very close to my Ohio PR and this 5k was only 45 seconds off. I cannot wait to go back to sea level and kick some butt!!