Monday, March 12, 2012

25 Seconds

22:24

25 seconds from my goal of a sub-22. 

This is a new 5k PR for me by about 20 seconds but it is bittersweet.
While I am happy with how I raced overall today, I did not meet my primary goal of sub-22 so I have a hard time celebrating the PR. It's deflated.

Where could I have improved to be 25 seconds faster?

It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool. I like cool for running. There was some pretty good wind out there today but overall, it was a good day to run.

Mile one was awesome...sub-7 and I was feeling good. Mile 2 was into the wind and a very mile sloping upward jaunt, nothing bad but I knew my pace dropped to 7:07 (I believe that was my mile 2 split...my Garmin is in my friends truck) and mile 3 I landed half-on/half-off the edge of the curb and twisted my ankle a bit (I'm fine, my shoe has more damage than I do) and that slowed me down for a SECOND. I kept running.
Funny thing...the only thing that really bothered me were my forearms! In my note to Coach Awesome, I had to laugh while I told her about it. I must have had my little fists balled up into fists of fury because they were on fire!!

RUN ON....

I know when I rounded the corned and could finally make out the time on the clock I could make out 21:xx...I ran and ran and ran and watched it tick over to 22:00 and I think my heart broke a little.
But I'd be dammed if I was going to let that stop me from from finishing this as strong as I could.

No excuses. 

I did my best. I did PR by 20 seconds. But I did not meet my goal but I will battle on and fight for the sub-22 another day. I just need to run faster. I know that  most of my running has been base building HR training but I am still disappointed that I did not achieve my goal.

The best part of the day? My training partner PR'd by over a minute. My good friends, Dawn and Stephanie came out to cheer me on (and they weren't even running).

I got to hang out with my tri club peeps!!
I got to Rock the Rev 3 R at the first race of the season!!





 I got to see so many friends and got to meet Dailymile buddy, Pauline.


 I got to cheer on my friend's little girl as she raced to the finish!

Then this made me realize that I am one lucky gal to have the friends I have-


Dear bestie,
You rock. You PR and you still want more. Did you give everything? You gave everything you had today. Next race....who knows? Without a whole lot of speed training, you gave everything your legs would allow. This 5k is not your finish line. You have a race with a whole bunch of hills that is calling for your best. Don't lose sight of that. You know coach awesome would say the same.
Proud of you girlfriend.:)




14 comments:

Lisa@RunWiki said...

That is a fantastic time! I am sorry you are disappointed , but you still are super fast and glad you were surrounded by friends. btw- I am friends with Pauline on DM too. haha! She is so supportive.

Unknown said...

Celebrate your PR, even though you didn't make your actual goal. Be proud of that PR. Baby steps ... before you know you'll hit that sub-22.

TriMOEngr said...

Way to PR! Surely that note at the end is to yourself. Sorry you are bummed, but that is still smoking fast to me!

fancy nancy said...

Wow chickie! You are fast! I get feeling deflated but great run!!

Jason said...

Congrats on dropping 20 seconds in a 5K. That is pretty darn awesome.

Relax those hands next time and get those elbows back and that chin up and boom....sub-21.

Jeff Vanis said...

Nice work on the PR. I feel for you not getting the result you wanted, but just know it is there for another day. Sounds like you have a great crew of people to work with and keep you going!

Katie said...

I do the same thing - clench my fists and then my forearms hurt for a week!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Congrats on the PR

Kabekona Tri Girl said...

love the letter at the end. for some reason it brought tears to my eyes and it was dead on. You did great!!! With some speedwork you'll totally hit your goal - and for no speedwork - great job of PR'ing!!!! Jen, you are awesome!

Carolina John said...

Cool! I did the same thing at a 5k saturday. Trying to get down to 21:50, I turned in a 22:52. So close! Mine wasn't a PR though, I did actually turn in a 21:58 in december. it was awesome. You will love it.

Jamie said...

You may be allowed to pout if this was June or July.

But it isn't. It is MARCH. Have you been training for speedy 5k races? It doesn't sound like it.

Sorry. I'm throwing a flag on this play. Penalty issued. No complaining about March "C" races - especially when it is a PR and your goal was a completely arbitrary round number.

Now go tell little Lola how fast she'll be once she grows up and gets strong like her momma.

A Prelude To... said...

I think your PR was pretty awesome!!!

Maggie said...

Congrats on the PR!!! When's your next 5k? I'm sure you'll crush the 22-barrier then and set yet another PR in the process... it's still very early in the season!!

Suz and Allan said...

Congrats on the PR! You are so fast!