Downs Freedom 5k {July 1, 2017}

Downs Freedom 5k 2017

July 1, 2017

7:30 am

Official Time: 21:36 (*Pushing Gabe; Pacing Holly-Rae*) 

Overall Ranking: 17/127

Female Ranking: 7

AG F30-39: 2nd (to Holly-Rae at #1!!)

(My 10th race of the 2017 season)

This race is a new one for me and one that hasn’t ever been on my radar, in spite of it really not being far from home.  It is in teammate and friend Holly-Rae’s hometown of Downs and is a race that she’s enjoyed numerous times.  One thing led to another and Clint ended up registering us for the race.  He also told Amber she should do it, and like any good coachling, she complied.  Ha!

Still being rather unsure of what my personal goals are for the remainder of this year (for the record, I want to have a great race at Boston next April but am kind of torn regarding what to do in the meantime - mostly I want to just keep enjoying my runs and not get stressed out if things don’t go well or if I can’t get a certain run in on a certain day because of Gabe or something), I got the idea to see if Holly-Rae was interested in having me pace her for this race.  I know this is a race that means a lot to her since it’s in her hometown and full of familiar faces and history.  I also knew that she had some goals for the race - she wanted to PR her 5k and get under 22:00.  Her current 5k PR was 22:07 and I was pretty darn confident in her that she had a sub-22 in her.  

I will say, offering to be a pacer for someone makes me pretty anxious.  It’s one thing to offer to pace a person or a group that is a minute or so below your personal race pace - to me, that feels safer and like something you may be able to relax a bit doing.  However, offering to pace someone who runs pretty darn close to your own pace is kinda frightening - if you have a bad day, you could totally blow it for them!!  Life, and running, only gets better when you step out of your comfort zone, though!  So…I sent her a text asking if she was interested in a pacer.

We went back and forth about it a bit - it seemed like she just wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t rather trying to hit my own PR.  No no no!  I truly wanted to give this a whirl and support a good friend.  So, she agreed and we decided to plan on me pacing her while pushing Gabe.

Holly-Rae picked up our bib numbers the night before the race - one less thing to have to worry about race-day morning.  Thanks, Holly-Rae!  Also, her kiddos John and Gracie presented Gabe with a colorful pinwheel similar to a pinwheel he likes to play with outside of their home. He was pretty pumped about this (see attached picture).

Our goal was to go out at 7:04/5s - this would get us right at a 21:59/22:00 finish if we held it perfectly.  For me, a 7:04 pace still hurts - I tried to mentally prepare myself for the run and prayed that I wouldn’t let Holly-Rae down!!

Holly-Rae, Amber and I all went out for an easy 1-mile warmup together on the first part of the course and then made our way back to the starting area in front of the middle school. It was definitely starting to heat up a bit and I could’ve done without the sticky humidity! Oh well - deal with what you’re dealt!

We lined up in the starting area and exchanged our usual good-lucks with the team.  Gabe grasped his pinwheel (I did attach it to the stroller so it wouldn’t get lost...HA!) and I knew that at some point he would likely toss it from the stroller, necessitating that I make some sort of wild dive to retrieve it. Smart or not, I decided to gamble and let him keep holding it. It kept him from crying in the starting area, anyway. HA!

A young girl sings the national anthem (quite well, might I add!), after which we are given the starting signal - we were off!  Holly-Rae settled in right next to me on my right side immediately.  A few strides into the race, some guy drops his cell phone right in the middle of the pack.  It bounces and lands behind us…he stops and forces his way back through the runners like a salmon swimming against the current. Poor guy! I did see him later, so I know he wasn’t trampled to death or anything. Hope his phone was ok!! 

I keep an obsessive eye on my watch - I have it on the “lap pace” screen so that I know what the average pace of our current mile is.  We run thru Dooley Park and cross to the other side of the village. Mile 1 dings at 7:01 according to my watch and I inform Holly-Rae that we are right on the money and tell her that we have about 3 seconds in “the bank."

Mile two starts working our way thru a neighborhood. We pass a water station which I use as a signal to offer Holly-Rae some of her water that I have in the bottle holder on the stroller.  Holly-Rae barely looks at me but gives kind of a nod and reaches a hand out.  I hand the water off, she drinks without breaking stride, hands it back, and I replace it into its place in the stroller.  At this point, too, I am holding the pinwheel against the top of the stroller in my left hand - Gabe had thrown it out of the stroller, javelin-style one too many times for my liking, so Mama commandeered it.  We start running up a small but annoying ascent and I feel our pace drop. I look down at my watch and note that we started to dip above 7:04.  I steal a glance to my right at Holly-Rae and note that she seems to really be fighting. I do my best to push the pace up the hill but she doesn’t increase her speed.  I do some quick mental calculations and decide that reserving some effort here will probably work out just fine if we use the upcoming descent to our advantage.  I definitely don’t want her to push too hard up this hill and torch her legs.  I drop back negligibly and inform her that as soon as we get to the top of the hill, we will pick things up and hammer it down the hill. Mile 2 clicks in 7:04. Right on the target pace, 3 seconds still in the bank from the previous mile.

Mile 3 starts up and, as she wrote in her report, HR was "really feeling barfo and working hard at this point. No talking, no smiling, just keep moving.”  Motivational speeches are not my forte, but I try to turn on the verbal encouragement here.  I know she is SO close to her goal and we can definitely get her there…but there was little room for error.  I started worrying that my watch was off JUST enough and we were actually missing our goal paces by even just a few seconds.  How maddening would that be at the end?!?After the first quarter mile of mile 3, I let HR know that we had just THREE “laps on a track” left (picturing laps on a track always helps me, mentally…hopefully it did the same for her!).  We powered through to a left-hand turn in front of a school. I let her know we had just TWO figurative laps left and that she COULD keep going! PUSH PUSH PUSH girl! And PUSH she did! She picked it up that final mile and Mile 3 clicked off in 6:54! HECK YES! Mile 3 was the fastest one of the race! We entered the track for the final 0.1...

Holly-Rae wrote, “Coming into the track for the finish was great, seeing so many friends and hearing the cheers.” We saw Clint cheering her on and I stepped back a bit to let HR do her thing and guide the pace for the final bit - I knew she’d done it!  As we hit the final straightaway of the track for the last 100 meters, I let up and let HR finish solo - she had more than earned it!

I finished in 21:36 and HR finished in 21:34 - not only a sub-22:00 5k but also a sub-7:00 average pace!! WHAT a RACE!

After we crossed the finish, I gave HR a sweaty hug and congratulated her on her monster PR.  We then caught our breath, grabbed some water and cheered Amber in.  After this, we jogged back out on the course to run Holly-Rae’s husband Tim and their two kids in.  Tim was running with a single stroller with BOTH kids in it! Ok, maybe they each got out and ran a bit here and there - but mostly he was pushing two kids in a single stroller.  Dad power!  It was fun to find them and run with them a bit as a cool down (as many of you know, I really suck at taking the time to get a cool down in most of the time, so this forced cool down was probably a GOOD thing!).

It was such a fun day - a great kickoff to a super 4th of July weekend.  After the 5k, they did a kids’ fun run - one lap around the track.  Clint and I went out there with Gabe who was the happiest final finisher ever.  He’s just learning how to walk (took his first steps on June 13!) and it took us a good 15 minutes to complete the lap together.  When he got down to the final 100 in front of the stands, he had to stop and have his own little dance party inspired by the music blasting from the speakers.  I am not sure where he got that - not from his mama or daddy!

This race does ten year age group brackets for awards and only recognizes the 1st place individual in each category, which means fewer people get called up - and it also means it’s all the more impressive if you DO get called up!  Holly-Rae, Clint, and Gary each got 1st in their respective categories - awesome job, guys, and great OR representation!!

I am SO proud of Holly-Rae’s performance in this race!  She said in her report that in 2016, she was 22:58 at this 5k and it was a season PR for her.  For her to run 1:22 faster today was just amazing.  I am glad to have had the privilege of playing a small role in her success.  As we all know, pacer or not, YOU - the runner - are still the one who puts in the hard work! WAY TO GO, HR! HR for a PR indeed!  Additional shout-outs to our other ORRT members who were present at this fun race - Gary and Amber. WOOOT! What a fun morning!

THANK YOU to Mitch for letting us have TOO much fun with this running stuff while we represent the great store, the teammates for being just plain awesome and fun to be around, Saucony for the best gear (I am loving my new pink hat that I scored a few weeks ago - lightweight and perfect for these hot summer days), and of course Coach Clint for the guidance and advice.