Sweet Home Milwaukee - 5K

Sweet Home Milwaukee - April 24, 2016
time = 24:44:13
pace = 7:57
placed 6 in my age group (40-44) out of 103
placed 55 in women out of 999
placed 125 overall out of 1369
link to strava data

it seems that disappointment with my race results is a running theme.  although, this is not an unusual result for me for a 5K after i went back and looked at my average result for a 5K.  this is average for me.  not slow not fast... it's a bit slower (seconds) so probably not even worth mentioning.

since my last entry (4/10) my running has looked like this:

4/10 - 3.1m
4/11 - 3.1m
4/19 - 3.1m
4/21 - 3.1m

so i suppose it's safe to say that i should be happy with this time given the very minimal running i've managed.  in fact... since january my mileage has taken a nosedive to look like this:

january - 121
february - 23.5
march - 7.1
april - 15.5

where i'm at with my leg is this... my left leg has a pinched nerve somewhere which is causing me some issue.  my foot is going numb when i run, but the good news is that the tendonitis seems to have resolved?  of course, i'm barely running so maybe it hasn't.  i intend to pick up some mileage this coming week so we will see.  another issue i'm struggling with is my calves.  i have consistently had issues with them where the muscles (for lack of a more medical term) bunch up.  they get knots in them that then have to be "released" via A.R.T.  this is incredibly painful and my chiropractor (bless his heart) practices active release.  i have stopped going to my physical therapist because i felt he wasn't helping as much as i had hoped (he's not a runner) and i felt that the needling wasn't really getting to the root of the problem.  the active release works but i need to figure out what is causing the issue in the first place.  so after my last run my calves were really painful.  i could feel a knot in each one and no amount of rolling was getting them out.  it was painful to walk.  so i had my husband work on them the way my chiropractor had in office.  after the race i had my son continue to work on my right one and then my husband came in and simultaneously worked on the left.  my husband worked so hard on it that when it released it was so painful i burst into tears.  the right never released.  it is still incredibly painful.  i had no idea that the left had released until later when i had stopped sobbing.  it is crazy how painful it is.  my left leg feels great now but the right... man, that one really hurts.

so that's the body update.  let's get to the race.  i've been wanting to do this race ever since it's debut in 2015.  mostly because the t-shirt is awesome!  long sleeved cotton w/ the milwaukee skyline.  love it.  if you know anything at all about me you know that i absolutely HATE the 5K distance.  it is SO HARD!  i have found that sprinting for the duration of a race is not enjoyable to me.  sprinting in general is one of my least favorite things to do which is why i rarely work it into my training... much to the detriment of my speed i suppose. lol!  anyway... 5K... not my favorite.

i signed up for this race pretty early on and decided that in spite of my gross lack of training or any sort of running for that matter... i would still run it.  i really wanted the damn shirt!  so run it i did.

it was supposed to be 70 today.  it was not.  i got up to a balmy 42 degrees.  i opted to still wear capris and a tank.  i did end up turning the car around and going back for a long sleeve shirt because the wind was awful at the lakefront.  made it seem colder than it was for sure.  thankfully we now only live a 6min freeway drive from the lake so it wasn't much of an issue to go home and get another shirt.

arrived with plenty of time to get a great parking spot in veteran's park right by the kite dealer.  trip to the bathroom and a little warm up then back to the car.  waited there for a bit to stay out of the wind and then back to the bathroom to kill some time.  that's when i saw josh doing his warm-up so naturally i screamed his name.  we chatted for a minute and then i let him get back to it and i peed.

i got in my corral (yes a corral for a 5K)... and waited to run.  the first corral took off.  there were staggered starts and then my corral took off.  i thought i was going SO SLOW!  people were passing me like it was nothing.  all ho hum and jelly rum... just whizzing past me.  i was behind (what i assumed was) a dad and daughter team.  the dad yells to the daughter, cuz you know headphones, that they have to slow down... so i just stay behind them.  i stay behind them because frankly i'm happy they are going slower.  i'm already straining and feeling like a turtle.  i didn't look at my watch this whole time because i didn't want to be disappointed in my pace... i felt like i was moving so slowly and everyone was passing me by.

so the mile marker beeps and the dad man yells (cuz headphones) "that was a 7:30"  now i'm all... DAMN! i am running too flippin' fast!  there is no way i can maintain that pace for the duration.  mentally this man's blurt fucks me.  i start to slow down.  i realize how very hard that was to run that mile and already i'm going slower and slower and more and more people are passing me.  i should have turned my headphones up WAY louder!

so that dream team pulls away from me and i never see them again.  that's ok tho' cuz i'm just basically trying to stay alive and breath through this.

i am now looking at my watch every 4 to 5 seconds to see how much farther i have to keep this up.  i realize i have a littler over half way more to go and i keep plodding along.  i feel like a clydesdale.

little kids are passing me now... skipping along and playing tag.  well, ok... not really playing tag but there were kids who passed me.  small ones too!

finally i see i have about half a mile left to go and i look at my watch again... i'm running a damn 9 minute mile!  i am so sad... i really just want to lay down right there on the goose poop layered concrete next to the lovely lake... but i keep plodding along cuz... half a mile.  relentless forward movement.  right?  just keep moving.

finally i see the turn to the finish and i sprint... although, it might have just FELT like a sprint and not ACTUALLY been a sprint... i can't be sure.

i was just happy to be done.

the course was great.  flat, well marked, and lovely.  went around the lagoon, along the lakefront, and through veteran's park.  it's a nice little jaunt.  i can't really speak on the stuff after... i didn't stay.  they had bananas and oddly give out a finisher's medal which is weird for a 5K.  they were well organized and if this race weren't at the same time as beartrax at lapham i would probably do it again.  however, this race is always the same weekend as beartrax and i prefer trail races so i likely won't get to do this one again.  i recommend it if you like a fast and flat 5K.