The Resolution Run 5K last weekend was my first planned race of the year. Of course, nothing is ever simple, and there was an open house at a school we’re considering for L at the same time. However, H agreed to take the kids to the open house, and I went by after the race. I really like this race series as it’s very low-key, and their courses are nice and flat. While I enjoy training on hills, I’m really into chasing PRs right now, so I favor flat, fast courses. Conditions really couldn’t have been better. It was chilly, partly cloudy, and not raining. There was a bit of a headwind on the way back, but it didn’t last very long, thankfully. I wore my Sugoi Midzero tights (love them) which were actually probably a bit much for the weather, and a Sugoi Fusion Core Long-sleeve top. Yes, I am a little bit obsessed with Sugoi running clothes. I skipped gloves and headband and felt very comfortable, maybe just a tad warm.

(The race provides free photos.  They had two of me – an unflattering one – shown – and a very unflattering one, which I will spare my readers and myself.  I was actually attempting to smile for this one, but 5Ks are painful.)

Before the race, I noticed at least two female runners near the front who were wearing college gear, implying they had been NCAA DI runners. I figured they’d leave me in the dust, and they did. One of them left me in the dust while pushing her one-year-old in a jogging stroller. Yup – she was awesome. I got a nice warmup dashing to the bathroom and back just before the race, which probably made the first mile a bit less painful. Or maybe it just tired me out – who knows.

I tried to go out hard for the first mile, but not too hard. My watch said about 7:04 at the first mile marker, so I ran fairly consistent splits. At 1 mile, I was hurting, but it was manageable. The second mile went by fairly quickly, and then it was just getting through the last mile. By the time I hit that last mile marker, I was really tired and just wanted to slow down. I told myself I had only 7 minutes of running left (which of course was not true – really more like 8 minutes). Then I just pushed through the various distance markers and picked up the pace a bit at the end.   My time ended up being 22:10, 7:09 per mile.  That’s a 20 second post-college PR and isn’t all that far off my high school times (in the 21 minute range).

I’m really pleased with my run, and I hope I can go even faster. The obvious goal would be to break 22:00. I’ve done that before – but not since college. It’s cool to feel like I can still run reasonably fast at 37 after two kids.  We have a weekend mini-vacation planned for the weekend of the second race I’d been considering, so I need to find another, possibly the weekend of the 18th.