Celebrate Providence 5K Race Report

This morning, my mom, sister-in-law Karen, and I did the Celebrate Providence 5K. Providence is a little town just south of Logan and the race was part of the town's summer festival. I had great intentions of waking up early and running to Providence, but I didn't sleep well and felt fairly crummy, so I decided to just do the race.

Yesterday, my mom and I went shopping and stopped at the local running store. They do a foot analysis thing to determine what shoes you should be wearing or that will work with the type of foot/gait that you have. I just replaced my running shoes at the end of April, but I ended up buying a new pair of shoes while I was there. Apparently, I've been running in the wrong type of shoes...I've been running in stability/motion control, when I have a neutral foot. So, I now have a new pair of running shoes (Pearl Izumi Surge) and after some internal debate, I ended up deciding to wear them this morning.

We arrived at the park where the race was and proceded to sign up. Instead of doing bib numbers, they did labels, which was different, but actually was a good idea. There was also a 1 mile race that several kids were taking part in. The little kids were so excited and couldn't wait to get started. There were quite a few people there, maybe around 50-75.

At the start, Karen turned to me and asked me what my time goal was, and I said that I really didn't have one. She said, you should try for 28 min and then the horn went off. As I started running (uphill), I heard her and my mom shouting lower and lower times. I figured I would just run and see how it went. We ran uphill for a block, and then turned north and ran for a few blocks which was a gradual uphill with one noticeable hill. During this stretch, my legs felt so incredibly awful. They started to cramp up, they were aching, and they just didn't want to run. I actually considered sitting down on the curb and quitting. I couldn't believe how rotten my legs felt. Anyways, we turned east and ran up to the street that my brother and his wife live on. It was somewhat downhill, but then headed up. I passed a few people on the downhill, which is something I'm good at. When I'm running downhill, I hear Coach Terry in my head saying, "Ride the hills." There was a pretty steep little uphill and then we turned back west for maybe 5-6 blocks of downhill. I continued to pass people but then the dry heaves started. My legs were still killing me, but I could see the finish line and so I just pushed through it. I crossed the finish line at 28:05, which means that I was running 9:03 miles, which I think I'm okay with.

After I crossed the line, I grabbed a bottle of water and an orange and then headed back out to pick up my mom and Karen. I found them about 5 blocks back and then ran them in, along with a woman from Kona who was really struggling. I think they finished in 33 or 34 minutes. There weren't many people behind them so I changed my clothes and then they started the prize drawings. They actually had prizes for everyone who raced which was totally impressive. Not only did they have prizes for everyone, but they had some really great prizes. There were several gift cards to several local restaurants, to a spa, lots of car wash tokens, a recumbent bike from NordicTrack, and 19" flatscreen monitor, as well as lots of other things like t-shirts. Karen and I won t-shirts and my mom won a 5 punch pass to the Logan Aquatic Center. I forgot to mention that I came in 4th place in my age group.

I think the best part of the day for me was when we headed to the local gardener's market. We ended up buying some fresh lettuce and baby spinach, along with some radishes and baby red potatoes. Oh, and there is a local dairy that makes delicious cheese so I bought a couple of blocks of that and some fresh baked yummy gooey chewy brownies. I can't wait until the other vegetables start coming on! I love the gardener's market.

So, what are my takeaways from the race...my legs are shot and I really need to figure out how to get that taken care of. I do have a 2 hour massage scheduled Monday afternoon, so I'm hoping that will help clear out some of the junk from my legs and especially my neck and shoulders. Apparently, I can still run okay, even when my legs feel rotten. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with my time, because at the beginning of the race, I told myself that I would be happy if I could just do 10 min miles. I didn't eat anything before the race, mostly because I just wasn't really in race day mode. I also didn't drink anything, so that may have had an impact on my performance. My new shoes worked well, but they were definitely different than what I've been used to. They're seamless on the inside, so I had absolutely no trouble with blisters at all. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with my performance in spite of feeling so awful! I guess it's time to start preparing for the BAM Triathlon next Saturday!