Brain Freeze

The Trunk or Treat 5k race this morning was a mite bit chilly, with the temperature hanging around the freezing mark. I arrived a little later than I usually do for a race and, by the time I got the number and tag on, it was time to go. My warmup consisted of jumping up and down and moving in place for a couple minutes before the start of the race.

Once the race started, I got into a pace which I would maintain for the entire race, which is good. Unfortunately, that pace was about 30 seconds per mile slower than I wanted to go. I was never really able to get moving much faster and, as often happens for these races, it takes about a mile for me to really get into a rhythm breathing.

The cold air, which I am not all that accustomed to running in, just seemed to effect me. I felt tight and heavy breathing in the cold air was a somewhat of a shock to my system.

The good part of my run, as I noted, was the steady pace I was able to keep through the entire race (besides the very end where I kicked it up a bit). The longer runs I have been doing over the past few months have really been helping.

I ended up with 2nd place in my age group today, keeping a run of finishing in the top three going. I like getting medals and awards as little tokens of encouragement. While not terribly meaningful and certainly nothing to brag about, it is nice to have something to show for the effort - most of which occurs during the training before the race.

Side note: What is with the "long" courses? This one was also about .1 mile long, just like the previous race. Yes, each race is an individual event with different weather, terrain, competition, etc., but a 5k should be 3.1 miles. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but I would have felt better dropping about 40 seconds off of my race time.

I think I'm finally at the point in my resurgent running career that I don't absolutely need races to keep myself motivated. Not saying that I don't like racing or that I intend to stop, but my continued participation no longer hinges upon just getting to the next race.