PR-ing in Pink

Race for the cure will always have a special place in my heart. For obvious reasons like, I have friends and family who have battled breast cancer (also friends and family who have battled other cancers. I run for them all at RftC) but also because it was my very first 5k. It seemed fitting that I would get a PR- a Personal Record- at the same 5k. Last year I tried and didn't quite make it. So this year I adjusted my training and tried to push for a faster pace. As a part of my marathon training I have set one day a week as a speed training day. I have a play list that has certain songs that, if I run to the beat of the music, I will reach my goal pace. It was rough. All I wanted was to finish the 5k with a 9:00min per mile average. Most of the songs are faster than that but I had to adjust to it. It was rough at first. However, over the last month and a half or so, I've been at 9 or under every time.

Last week, leading up to Race for the Cure I was feeling mostly confident. I thought, if I have hit my goal pace, or better, every week for over a month, surely I can do it at the race. Each day that passed my confidence shrunk a little. I was worried about the course. It had been changed due to construction. I was worried about the hills. I had not really trained on hills. A couple days beforehand I saw the weather. I was worried about that. I had not run in cold weather in a long time.

I also had things to keep me excited though. A new course means not knowing what's around the corner. For some that's a problem. For me it tends to make the run seem faster. The upper 40 degree temperature I'd be running in would mean breathable air. Much better than the warm and humid air that makes running more difficult. Best of all, one of my best friends was visiting from Canada. Roxanne knows every detail about my running journey because I met her through the website I used when I first started changing my lifestyle. She's is one of the people in my core group of supporters and I love so much that she could be here for this amazing day.

We woke up early Saturday morning in order to get to Little Rock and make sure we had time to walk around and see the fun stuff set up near the course. By the time we made sure we knew where the new start and finish lines were, there wasn't too much time left. The competitive run started at 7:30. Following that was the main run/walk 5k. Our plan was for Roxanne to see me off at the starting line and then she would head over to the finish line a few blocks away. She graciously agreed to be my photographer for the race. After I finished we would head back to the start line and walk the 5k course together. (And following that I would head away from the race festivities and run another 6 miles so that I could get my training run in for the marathon!)

Back to the starting line. I was let past the barricade into the corral for the competitive runners and all of a sudden it really hit me. I was standing among some incredibly fast people. And there were a lot of them. It's hard not to compare yourself to other runners when you're all there for the same purpose. To be among the first 300 women (and 100 men) to finish and earn that medal. Roxanne gave me words of encouragement every time I turned back to her. Trying to take deep breaths and not cry I also tried to convince myself that she was right. I could do this. One of the MC's said a prayer and then gave a one minute warning. I put in my earbuds and set up my running app. The next thing I know the start gun goes off. I took one more deep breath for confidence and off I went.

I had my music turned up louder than normal to drown out anything going on around me. The sideline support is some of the best of any race I have done, but I couldn't even take the time to enjoy it this time. I was focused on one thing, and one thing only. It was a challenging course. More so than I expected. I hoped with the change it would mean less hills. It may just be me, but I think there were more. Or maybe less time to regroup before the next uphill came. Either way, there were a lot. With the beautiful sun rise also came almost a mile of blind running. I did my best to keep pace to my music while hoping I would not trip on a crack in the road or run into someone ahead of me. Time seemed to pass quickly which I was thankful for. Before I knew it I had reached the fastest song on my playlist. I was already breathing hard and not sure if I could make it through the whole song without slowing my pace down. I hoped if I could just make it through that one I'd be good. As I finished mile 2 I realized I was slightly ahead of where I normally would be for the song that was playing. That gave me hope that I was doing better than I thought. I also knew I had a pretty big hill coming up and probably another gradual climb at the end. I pushed through. Almost walking a couple times on the big hill. I had one Heather on one side saying "It will be ok to walk. You don't have to PR this time", and another Heather on the other side saying, "Keep going! Less than a mile and you're don." I gave the negative Heather a little mental flick off my shoulder and pushed some more. As I turned the last corner my fastest pace song came back on. I had added it to the end of my play list hoping I could use it for my final boost at the end. I cranked it up and went for it. I heard cheering. I saw other finishers. I saw medals. I knew I had placed. I saw Roxanne. I tried to smile... I don't think it happened. :) When I looked down and stopped my app I was almost sure I had PR'd. I met up with Roxanne and we walked back to the start line to do it all over again. I was surprised at how excited I was to go again. Knowing we were walking and that I would be able to actually enjoy the sideline entertainment made a big difference.

It wasn't until late last night that I was able to truly believe I had met my goal. Not only met it, but smashed it. All I wanted was a 9 minute pace and a medal. Even if it meant placing 300th. The chip time results were posted and I saw that I placed 182nd out of 426 women (250th overall- 517 total competitive runners). My finish time was 28:09, but since I've been going by pace through all my training I'm basing it according to my app which says my average pace was 8:46 for 3.2 miles. Almost 15 seconds per mile faster than I had hoped for! And 30 seconds per mile faster than my average pace at last year's race.

Yep. I'm a little happy. :)