St. Patrick's 8k Race Report

Sunday morning came way to fast even though my alarm was set for 7:30am. I wanted to jump back in bed but I was exited to run in the St. Patrick's 8k and we were out the door by 8:10ish all dressed in green.

Oh course by the time we got to the metro there was a 15 minute wait until the next train, which meant I started to panic a bit over if we would make it to the race on time. We arrived at Freedom Plaza with 15 minutes to spare and were greeted by a sea of green! 

I rushed to find bag check: why did I were extra clothes anyhow, who knows? But we made it! And I was ready to run my little heart out :) 

We ran into Rachel before the race and I wished her and Jason good luck before heading up the faster pace groups. 

I lined myself in-between the 7 and 8 minute pace group. I have actually never really "raced" a shorter distance race. Usually I just run these for fun with my one and only. But this year I was interested in seeing how fast I could go? With that said I had the great idea of just going out fast and seeing how long I could hold that pace for? I know this is not how you are suppose to race, but what the heck, I wanted to try it anyhow.

Mile 1: 6:46

There was a lot of runners, around 8,000 I think. I started in the perfect spot though and really didn't have to run around anyone at the beginning of the race, everyone was fast! I was just going with the flow and when my watch beeped at mile 1 at a sub 7 pace, I thought oh how neat, there is no way in hell I will be able to run this fast for another 4 miles...

Mile 2: 7:04

Yep, see I knew I couldn't run a 6:50 pace for more than 1 mile. Plus good lord, there is so many turns and curves on the course. I already knew this from past years running this race, but kind of forgot just how bad they were. I really had to slow down at each orange cone and basically do a 180.

Mile 3: 7:21

I'm seeing the girl who I was trying to kept up with kept getting farther and farther away from me and I'm getting mad. But, I am slowing down with each step I take and I'm just running out of steam. I basically throw in the towel on the mini race I had going on in my head and stop worrying about that other girl and just go into survival mode since my stomach was starting to get upset.

Mile 4: 7:20

"Oh thank you that there is only two more miles left. 2 miles are easy. I can do this." My overall goal anyhow was to do this run as a nice tempo at a 7:30 pace or below and I was doing that. I was tempted to grab some water at the second water stop, but just kept on running. As I rounded the corner of 3rd onto Penn I know we only had about a mile left.

Mile 5: 7:11

I really wanted to try for a negative spilt here, but my stomach started playing nasty games with me. And I really did try to push myself to go faster, but my body just wasn't too happy with me. I saw this poor kid running his heart out towards the finish line and thought, oh you poor thing, you see there is a little street you have to run down and back before the finish that he didn't know about. I caught back up to him and passed him on the out and back. I really didn't try to kick it into high gear until I was back onto Penn. About 100 meters from the finish line I started to dry heave while running. I thought: "please, please not again!" I had thrown up all over myself at the Baltimore Half a few years back which made for some nasty finish line photos. I somehow managed to hold it back this time, but not for long ....

Finish: 35:47 ~ AG 13/809 

As soon as I crossed the finish line I looked for a trash can. There was none. I walked over to the side of the finishers chute, leaned over and threw up in-front of all the spectators. I thought I was done, stood up, walked a little, but then threw up again. NOT.PRETTY. 

Afterwards:

The good thing about DC races is you run into lots of friends who also love to run :)

After I was finished, I made my way up closer to the finish line to watch for Jason to finish. There was a lot of people crossing the finish line, but somehow he spotted me before I saw him. He did great and finished with a 9:45 average pace. Then we made our way to the good part of the race: food!

I proceeded to stuff my face with not one but two bagels! Hey I was hungry. As we were eating our friend Amy, who also ran, joined us and we hung out for awhile just chit chatting about all kinds of stuff. While talking I guess they were interviewing the winner literally right next to us. I hope they didn't over hear us and put any of our nonsense into the interview :)

Overall:

I'm pretty happy with my run. Like I said this is the first time I actually tried to run fast during a shorter distance race. And I know every one's fast is different, but this was fast for me. I actually wonder why I never tried to run fast when I was in my 20s. What a waste. And even though I am so happy with my time, I still want to do better and go faster. At any rate, I will continue to work on my speed work and see how I improve...

Happy Tues All :)