Race Takeaway: I just need to keep plugging away at my training and racing.

Sunday I ran the local Jingle Bell 5K. While it was a nice 50 degrees outside the winds were 17mph which were no fun for racing. Rob, Chase, and I went out for breakfast and then picked up my packet early. The race wasn’t until 1pm and that would be in the middle of Chase’s nap so Rob and Chase stayed home while I ran this one.

The expo and race are hosted at Heartland Community College, which means ample parking, facilities (aka bathrooms), and space to relax and get ready. Chase enjoyed going to the expo and running around the gymnasium. 🙂

When Chase took her nap I headed back over for the race around noon. I had plenty of time on my hands so I headed outside in my warm up pants and jacket and did a 2.54 mile warm up. I got to see a lot of our friends and catch up on how their racing season was going. I chose to wear compression socks, shorts, long sleeves. I decided against a hat so I wouldn’t get too warm.

The course was new this year so I had no idea where we would be running, but I just followed the herd. We ran around the parking lot, out on to the constitution trail, around the inside the Corn Crib Stadium field, and then out and around the parking lot of Heartland to the finish. I felt fine the first 1.5 miles, but then we had the head winds and about .5 mile incline coming back on the constitution trail to Heartland. I tried pushing through the winds, but it felt like running in slow motion. It felt like time was moving slowly and the race felt longer than my 10K the previous week! Finally the torture was over and my time was 24:36, fourth in my age group.

I’m glad that I was able to get out and race, espeically with a race in town. It proved to be a good workout.

Stats:

24:36

7:56 Pace

F 35-39: 4/29

F: 24/182

Overall: 72/316

Previous Race Performances (in Bloomington/Normal):

2010 Jingle Bell – 5K – 21:25 (Normal, IL Heartland, but different course)

2009 Jingle Bell – 5K – 22:25 (Normal, IL Marriot course)

2008 Jingle Bell – 5K – 27:30 (Bloomington, IL course)