triple crown – my 5k version

Want to enter an incredible give-away?  Head over to my fellow Panty Raider, Amy’s site Running is Cheaper than Therapy for the chance to win entry into the Blue Ridge marathon.  Seriously – this beast of a 26.2 looks INSANE!  And crazy fun of course!!

yeah… running this is immediate and epic bamf status

As I’ve mentioned (maybe a million times?), this past weekend I hit the road for three different 5k’s.  To be honest, this wasn’t intentional – I completely got my dates mixed up and didn’t realize all three were the same weekend when I hit the “submit” button.  Nevertheless, I don’t regret any of them!

1.  Friday night my friends and I drove up to Grand Rapids, MI for the Yule Run, I’ll Walk 5k (7 pm start).  My friends and I did it last year so it’s nice this is becoming a bit of a holiday tradition.  It turned out, I would be the only one to run as the others walked with the cutie-patooty baby and puppy.

It was cold.  Or I was cold – not sure which one.  The course is mostly flat and it started right on time.  I started running and I was worried I had gone out too fast.  I was seeing 9:30’s on my garmin.  I took control of my breathing and decided to keep pushing it.  I crossed the finish line at about 29:50!  I was THRILLED!  My garmin said the same and that the course was even a tad bit long (just a smidgen but still brings my overall pace down!)  My overall pace is listed at 9:34 on the website.  I was shocked.  I had convinced myself I couldn’t run faster times anymore so this made me really happy.

awww – me and the other goils when we were all done!

The rest of the night was spent with friends, Chinese food and a tasty beverage – it was a great night!

2.  Bright and early Saturday morning (8:30 am start) was the Turkey Trot 5k.  I’ve done this race quit a few times and somehow I always forget how HARD this course it!  Man, it’s beastly!  It was my friend’s first 5k so I was jazzed to share this with her.  I’m a loser and forgot to take a pic of us together but you’ll have to trust me!  She did so great!  I was super proud of her!  Me?  I ran over to the start since it was really close to my apt and I knew I was in for a tough 3.1 miles.  My legs felt heavy and uncooperative!

these are two of my buddies – don’t they look awesome?!

I finished this one (which was approximately 12 hours after my first!) in 33 mins and some change.  I think my overall pace was about 10:34 (38?).  Once I saw this part, I wasn’t as disappointed.  In reality, as soon as the “gun” went off and we started up the hill my goal was 33 mins or under so I was happy with this.  Afterward, we headed out to IHOP and I had my first ever IHOP pancake.  Tasty!

3.  My last 5k was the Jingle Bell run and it was at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon.  By this time, I was LOW on motivation!  I was sitting in my recliner and wondering if I was going to get up and actually run.  I was beat and while I wasn’t horribly sore, my legs were definitely tired.  Luckily, I realized I had made all of these races massively public so I got off my bum and went out there.

right after the jingle bell run – man, I was happy and proud!

The weather was beautiful and I was slightly overdressed.  The race got started a little later than it was supposed to but then it was “go” time.  Funny enough, at this moment I was still wondering if I was going to be able to pull this off.  We hit the road and I felt like I was running in slow motion.  Turns out I was running sub-10 min miles so I kept focusing on the mileage countdown.

Oh man, finishing was SO HARD!  Haha, but I crossed the finish line in 29 mins and some seconds and had a 9:24 pace!  Wahoo!  This course was much flatter than Saturday’s so this definitely helped!

Take-Aways:

*I need to stop underestimating myself!  I know this is a recurring theme here but it’s a recurring theme in my life overall.

*A few months ago, I bought some tights that I thought would be good for winter running.  Turns out they are recovery compression tights.  I figured this out Saturday evening and wore them that night and for the race the next day.  I think they really helped!

*Running all out 3 days in a row is hard.  Plain and simple.

*I didn’t stop at water stops for the first or third races.  I can get through 3.1 miles without a water stop in the middle of Nov.

*It was a good boost of endorphins, confidence and FUN that I needed to infuse in my lackluster marathon training.  Oh yeah, I’m still training for a marathon (<— kind of a joke as of late!).

*Not to brag, but my form kinda rocked!

here are some of the lights from the Yule run!

It really was an ideal weekend of racing weather-wise and it also really helped me kick off the holiday season.  So happy I didn’t succumb to the nagging voice in my head that said, “you are too tired to do this!”  Thanks so much for all of the support!