The time was near for the annual sibling run and this year's race was the Pork Power 5K, part of the Mankato Marathon weekend. I must say, I'm really impressed with the entire race weekend. There are so many events to encourage as much participation as possible from the entire family. The following races are offered:
- Marathon
- Half-marathon
- 10K
- 5K
- My Bold Walk (0.6 mile loop, for those who have disabilities that prevent them from doing the 5K)
- Kids Mile
- Toddler Trot/Diaper Dash
I took Friday off to enjoy the trot up to Mankato with Sir Jeff and was able to have dinner with my sister and my former co-worker and husband, who have become good friends of mine. We had a fantastic time at a pub in downtown Mankato (Pub 500) and I enjoyed a delicious salmon & veggie quinoa bowl.
Saturday morning, after my brother's late Friday and my parent's morning arrival, we headed to packet pickup. I love a good race expo, and this one was pretty good, for the smaller size of the race. I collected a decent amount of free stuff, and had the biggest surprise when I watched my dad walk up to collect a race bib after my siblings and I got ours. My sister captured my expressive reaction perfectly:
The 5K was scheduled for 4PM on Saturday, so we went back to my sister's house, relaxed and then got ready for the race. I had packed a drawstring sack of water and a bowl for Jeff and a fun size snickers I had grabbed for after the race, only for mom to grab a different one that had dad's race t-shirts in it, haha. In any case, we got to the start/finish with plenty of time to warm-up, find friends, chat and finally line up.
Then, we heard "GOOOOOOOO!" As far as race strategy, my plan was to run 5 minutes, walk 1 because the hip had been feeling pretty gnarly for the past week or so. I kept the pace easy, and soon realized it had been warm enough for shorts and a tank, rather than the capris and t-shirt I was wearing. Ugh.
However, after mile 1 I felt so good and had a pretty good pace going that I wondered, "How far off would I be from my PR today? Hmmmmmmmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm." So ... I went a little faster, and a little faster, and by mile 1.5, I was like, "I WANT THAT PR!!!" and skipped the bacon station (boy, did that NOT sound good). By mile 2, I was thinking that 5Ks SUCK and that I was insane for thinking it was reasonable to only run those and 10Ks for the next year. What was I wanting to do, torture myself??
By the end, I was just ready to be done, and giving everyone the 'hang ten' sign when they were cheering, and hating the hairpin loop in the last 0.1 mile, as well as 5Ks in general at that point. I wasn't looking at my watch very much, but as I saw the timing clock, I cursed because I knew I had missed my PR. By 42 seconds. By the way, that's a little less than a walk break. UGH.
Final time: 31:04
Avg pace: 10:04/mile. Polly said it was a new pace record.
Splits: 10:26, 10:17, 9:43
Still, after I got my breathing under control and my stomach was no longer threatening to get rid of the banana, peanut butter and granola I had eaten around 2:30 that afternoon, threw my medal around my neck (everyone gets a finisher medal these days, sometimes I'm not sure how I feel about it), and got in the food line. Water, chips, Gatorade, Kashi bar, half a banana and sour vitamins jumped into my arms, so I ate like I finished a half marathon. There literally was pork loin on a stick, but that sounded like the worst thing ever at the time, so I declined.
Found my dad, who had finished in 29:12, which ended up being second in his age group! He lost by 2 seconds to a guy 8 years younger than him. Pretty darn good. Then we found my brother, who ended up getting interviewed by the local news (probably because he was dressed as The Flash) and cheered in my sister as she made her way in.
Remember that part where I ate all that food? Yeah. Then we decided to go get pizza sooner rather than later, so I insisted we wear our finisher medals to Pizza Ranch. Ugh, I was sort of not ready to eat, but luckily, the gluten free pizza is special order, so I slowly had some veggies as I waited for that. Then I had 3 slices and finished the rest of the pizza for breakfast (because, even though Pizza Ranch is a buffet, you have to get the entire pizza if you ask for gluten free). So. Much. Cheese.
But, it was still a fun time, and, in the end, I'm thrilled with this race because I was so close to that PR without really having trained for a 5K and with no speedwork whatsoever. The last time I was really able to race a 5K was March of 2014. So, I am so all over real, hardcore 5K training come spring. In the meantime, I've got two 5Ks in November, with maybe a little less food and (hopefully) a little more speed.
Cheers!
