Never did I fathom setting a PR–let alone a 5K PR–in my early 40s would ever be possible.
Maybe it helps that I wasn’t very fast in high school or college. I did run around 2:30 – 2:35 for the 800 in 9th grade, but then I continued to get slower as I progressed through high school. I have no idea what my times were, but I think I ran around 6:20 for the 1600 and maybe close to 14 minutes for the 3200. Now it’s crazy to think how I could place in my college NCAA Div III track meets as someone twice the college kids’ age. Maybe I should run unattached at a race?! Although, that sounds insanely scary!
Anyway, I could not be more happy to run so well this past Monday on Memorial Day at the Brian Kraft Memorial 5K in Minneapolis. I was hopeful this race would go well, and it was good to get some redemption after my marathon at the end of March. This race brings incredibly fast people as the race is on the team circuit race series. I am not on a team, but I love the race because the course is flat (my watch had 13 feet of elevation gain) and fast (one big loop around a lake).
Craig and the boys were able to come and watch me run, which was so nice to have them there as they haven’t seen me race in almost a year! Sometimes it is nice going to a race by myself, where I can do what I want and don’t have to be a mom on top of it, but I also like having them there. Plus, they can’t complain about this race taking too long since I was done running in less than 20 minutes.
Since they were able to go with me to the race, we made a little family trip out of it by going up to St. Paul on Sunday morning for church. Then we drove to my sister and brother-in-law’s house and stayed at their house, went to a park in the neighborhood, then walked some of the nature trails behind their house, and finally found another playground to play at. Afterwards we drove to Stillwater for dinner at a new-to-us restaurant, and finished off the night with ice cream at one of the local creameries and a movie at my sister’s house.
Monday morning we drove to Minneapolis for the race–luckily it wasn’t a crazy-early start. We got to the race around 7:45 a.m., and I warmed up for the race with a two mile warm-up, stretches, drills, and some strides. I changed into my Nike Alphaflys at 8:15 a.m., 15 minutes before the race start. It was a beautiful morning with temps right around 60 degrees, light wind, and sun.
I knew this was a fast field, so I seeded myself appropriately for what I was wanting to run. Going into the race, I was hoping to run a 5:50 min/mi pace for the 3.1 miles. My previous PR was 18:20 at the Tracksmith 5000 last summer, so some would argue that I can’t use that as my 5K PR since it was on a track. Which I totally get, a track is completely flat, you are running exactly 5000 meters, and you could wear spikes (I did not.). But now I can say my new 5K PR is official.
I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to feel as I’ve still been dealing with my breathing issues (EILO – exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction) in my workouts recently, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel on this day. I tried not to set my aspirations too high and be open to whatever happened. My mantra for the day was: “This is what you do in practice every day.” Meaning, these paces are no faster than what I’ve done countless times in workouts, so trust your training and believe that it will come together for race day.
As soon as the race started, I really tried to not go out too fast even though it can be SO hard! I glanced at my watch a couple times and saw 5:40s on it, so I dialed it back a bit because it never works out well if I go out too fast. I also really tried to hug the left shoulder of the road since we were running counter clockwise around the lake. I wanted to do my best to run the tangents as best I could since every second matters in a 5K.
Mile one was very crowded, and it took me most of the mile to find some room to run. However, it flew by and was over before I knew it. My watch beeped slightly before the 1 mile marker, so I knew I had already added distance to my overall race. Bleh! But what can you do. I came through the first mile in 5:48 according to my watch, which was perfect! The pace felt doable, but I also knew I couldn’t get complacent and let my mind wander or lose focus. I worked to latch on to those around me and maintain the same pace, occasionally checking my watch to make sure I was maintaining the pace I wanted.
I knew once I got to mile two, there was only one mile left, so I couldn’t let up. I came through mile two in 5:51, which boosted my confidence I could hang on to this pace for one more mile and PR. During mile three I was starting to ride the line of my EILO starting to kick in. I can feel when it is going to come on before it actually starts, so I was doing my best to keep breathing deeply and avoid breathing shallow.
During the last mile, it was a lot of telling myself, “you only have one kilometer left,” or “just get to the start line” (which we crossed again on our way to the finish). I also kept trying to pick off anyone I could to keep myself engaged and keep pushing.
As I neared the finish line and saw the timing clock, I saw 18:10 on the clock, but I still had a little ways to go. I simultaneously wanted to make sure I got every second I could and make sure it didn’t get to 18:20, which was my previous PR. So I pushed as hard as I could. I knew the clock was displaying gun time, but I also didn’t want to take my chances.
I ran through the finish line, stopped my watch, and saw 18:18 on it, so I knew I had set a PR since I stopped it after I ran through the finish. I wasn’t sure what my chip time was until I checked the official results.
And yes, this is a super competitive race, so even with my time, I was 110th place overall, 12th for the women, and 3rd in the age group! Minnesota has some legit competition. But honestly, I wasn’t even concerned with my placing, I was just happy to set a 7 second PR. And if you don’t count my 5000 time on the track last year at Tracksmith 5000, this would have been a 15 second PR, which I finally broke after nine years! (My previous PR was 18:28 back in 2016 at the Alaska Heart Run.)
I am ecstatic that this race went so well, and I do not take for granted what my body is allowing me to do at 42 years old!
