Safety Day 5K

Unbelievable!

Today I came within 19 seconds of a 30:00 5K, and within 1:01 of my PR. Two days ago it took me almost 35 minutes to run 3 miles. Today I ran the Safety Day 5K at work in 30:19.

That is, by far, my fastest 5K in months, maybe even a year.

As soon as I got home, I mapped it, thinking that the course had to have been short, even though I’ve run there so often that I knew 80% of the trail like the back of my hand. The verdict was 3.07 miles. So ok, fine, you got me, it was barely short. Close enough that it takes nothing away from how awesome I feel! Even at 3.07 miles, that’s a sub-10:00/mile average.

Honestly, I don’t know where it came from. Of course the weather was absolutely beautiful today after the cold front finally pushed through; sunny and about 70 with no humidity. If this is my reward for running consistently through the heat of the summer while doing that triathlon training program, well, it was totally worth it.

I ran the first 1.75 miles (to the water stop) with Debbie. Mile 1 passed in 9:54, which I chalked up to my good mood about the weather and getting pulled along by Debbie. She pulled me to the water station, and after a quick stop for water (really must learn to drink and run at the same time), my trying to catch up to her got me through mile 2 in 10:10.

Mile 3 was hard; my brain kept telling me to walk, but the rational part of me knew that I didn’t need to. My breathing was still under control and my legs felt fine. So I kept going. I knew the trail so well at this point that I knew right where to pick up the pace! I covered the third mile in 9:36, and the last “tenth” (which was actually the 0.07 — the mile markers were accurate) in 39 seconds.

The most ironic thing has to be that I was just telling Debbie at the beginning of the race that I’d really like to do another sub-30:00 5K, and that maybe I’d train hard this fall to do one in January or February.

Maybe it’s closer than I think.