New Years and the Resolution 2011 5K

TH and I planned to have a night in with our friends, JD and fam. We had a friend drive up from Southern Oregon and another flew in from Eastern Oregon. We made fondue (cheese and chocolate) and strawberry margaritas, played some board games and nearly missed the countdown. We turned the TV on with 7ish seconds left. Good timing I suppose. After my tummy was filled with tequila, cheese, and chocolate we all got to bed because we had a race the next morning.

The aftermath of the fondue

Playing Cranium

Last NYE we all (more or less) ran the First Run and Walk 5K at the stroke of midnight. This year the same event planner held another 5K on the same course during New Years Day. We opted for the morning run since midnight is late for JD Junior (and TH). It was super cold in the morning but dry and sunny. Would have been perfect if not for the East winds coming from the Gorge. They were frigid!

My goal for the race was to finish under a 8:00 pace. I told myself that I was going to focus on pacing myself and not going out too fast. We started and again I had to slow myself down but thankfully I had the Garmin to tell me exactly how overly fast I was going. I slowed down to just below my 8:00 pace and I felt like I was jogging. It's interesting how my body has no idea of how fast or slow it's really going. I kept at that pace for the next 2 miles. At the end of mile 2, I picked up the pace a bit because I felt completely refreshed and fine. I picked up the pace, but not too much and then I had an all out sprint the last quarter mile. I ended up finishing in 23:37 according to chip timing. That put me at a pace of 7:36. I was pretty happy to see that because i just had the goal of finishing with an 8:00 pace. I ended up getting 2nd in my age group (20-24) but I've come to the realization that everyone in my age group was busy being hungover and not running. I compared my time to the runners the night before and I wouldn't have even made it top 10 in my age group. Regardless, I got myself a medal. I later scanned through the Garmin and my last mile was recorded at 7:26. This is interesting because when I did 1 mile intervals with my group Thursday night, that was just under my average time. Interesting. I want to do another 5K because I want to push myself harder because I felt so slow during this run. Aside from the last half mile, I really felt like I was jogging. I looked back at my results from last year and interestingly enough, My pace for that race was 8:01. I didn't even know I ran a 5K with that pace before. Still happy about knocking 25 seconds off my pace, but now I'm motivated to do more!

The JD family. JD Junior and his daddy did a great job! JD mama did fantastic too!



Our group after we all finished.

Workouts:

Friday: 15 min row machine, free weights for arms, core 1500M swim + 3- 50M sprints
Saturday: 5K race
Today: Possible swim with TH but no running since I poured boiling water all over my foot and it's burned. boooo