Valentines Day 5K

The Valentines Day 5K is an early goal race of mine, meaning I did actually fix my diet and train for the thing.  Dungeon Master signed up for the race series, so this is her first race of the year too.  My plan was to run my race, then cool down jog back to find her on the course and walk in with her, which is pretty much what happened.  Bonus is that I seem to remain frostbite free.


Start time: 10am, north side of Lake Nokomis

Weather: 3* and 5mph winds.  It was cold.

Wardrobe: I was a little too hot for the race and had things mostly unzipped.  I was freezing cold walking in and then back to the car with the Dungeon Master.
Bottoms: fleece lined tights; brooks running pants
Top: smart wool base layer, 2xu fleece top, my new favorite running jacket
Socks: Compression socks, wool socks
Other: Gloves, fleece headband for during the race.  Mittens, hat, gaiter for after the race
Shoes: Altra Lone Peaks.  I'd considered a couple other pairs that would've been lighter and faster, but nothing else really accommodates two pairs of socks like the Altras.

Transportation: I drove Dungeon Master and myself.  We parked on 52nd street.  There will still spots available at 9:30, but it was filling up fast.

Route: Run one lap counter clockwise around Lake Nokomis.  (Every race I've ever done at Lake Nokomis is counter clockwise.  I think it has to do with opening Cedar Ave as quickly as possible.)  Note the start line is about 0.3 miles behind the finish, so it's like run for 2 minutes, 'oh here's the finish.  Psych! go run around the lake and then come back here.'

Plan/Goals: My A goal for sometime in 2018 is to run a 5K in under 30 minutes.  I figured I'd see how close to that I could come today.  I think I could've had a better mental plan than 'see if you can run a sub 10 mile and then see if you can hang on'.  I could've had a more realistic plan as well. But I really didn't want to feel like I left anything out there.

Execution: Sadly, a sub30 was not to be today.  My average HR was 171bpm or 93% of max for the entire race.  My run cadence was around 175.  So I think I did what I could here, and I have room to grow over the year.

Nutrition: I woke up around 7:30am and ate half an avocado with salt, then had a banana around 9am. I was glad I'd had a little food but also glad my stomach was mostly empty.

Results: Early results say a 32:15 or 10:23 per mile, which is about a minute slower than last year's best 5K where I was in the best shape of the year.

SWAG: SWAG is a medal and a long sleeve shirt.  Post race goodies were the normal chips, cookies, nut rolls, and bonus hot chocolate. 

Remember for next time: I did packet pick up a day early at the TCM offices (which is near my own work headquarters).  This saved me some race day standing in line and being cold.  If I run this race again, I'd do the early packet pick up as well.

Bonus: Dungeon Master wanted to go to Peppers and Fries afterwards.  Since I'm no longer Whole30 girl, I got the burger of the month, which is a bacon cheeseburger on a maple doughnut.  I did not have the whole doughnut.  And I did not have alcohol.   But I did remark 'I haven't had a pop since last year'