Bloomington, IL//1:00 pm
-21:27 (6:55 pace) *with stroller/Gabey!*
-1st in F35-39 AG (out of 44)
-6th Female of 818
-43rd out of 587 total finishers
(my 4th race of the 2018 season)
With this race always being the first one of each year where most (if not all!) of the Often Running Racing Team is in attendance, it is always kind of a stressful one for many of us! I know I dealt with some anxiety (why?!) leading up to the race, but did my best to keep my head on straight Sunday morning leading up to the race.
Last year I ran a 20:34 at this race (also pushing Gabe!) which is my standing Stroller 5k PR (my solo PR is 20:20, set at Evergreen in August 2017). I knew I wasn't in sub-21-minute shape going in to this race, but I hoped to (a) be faster than the 5k I ran the day before in Davenport, Iowa (I wanted to "negative split" my weekend races! Ha!) and (b) get sub 22/as close to 21:00 as possible.
Planning to get to the VFW where the race starts around noon (for the 1pm start), we left our house around 11:40 and went to pick up our friend Tanya on our way to the race. We joined our crew at the back of the VFW in our "usual" spot and got to work on our usual pre-race preparations. Clint, who had asked someone to pull his race entry shortly after filling it out because he didn't feel up to racing...ended up registering for the race after we arrived (he had packed clothes and shoes "just in case"...oh Clint...you keep us guessing ;)).
The weather felt like an amazing gift after the "wintery mix" of precipitation and 34 degree temps we dealt with the previous day at the St. Pat's 5k we ran in Davenport! I went out for a little warm up, shooting to do around a mile and a half. Clint joined me for a quarter mile and ran a quarter mile back to the start to get in a half mile total warm up (he had already run five and a half miles out on the trails at Comlara that morning).
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| Family pic pre-race, pre-warm-up, pre-nap |
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| After the warm-up, Gabe was OUT for the count! |
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| Look at that starting lineup (esp. the tired guy on the right!!) |
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| 4 of the 5 ORRT Ladies pre-race - I am a fan of this crew |
I watched Clint sail off quickly with a big group of other fast runners. I did my best to settle in to a pace and joked with friend/teammate Gary who was right next to me for the first tenth of a mile or so to hurry up (I tend to always take off too quickly - with Gary right behind me for a few strides before ultimately passing me).
I took the first of the eleven turns (yup, I counted - unless I counted incorrectly, of course!) in the race and headed to the left before taking another left hand turn through a neighborhood. I did my best to make wide turns and to stay out of other runners' ways. I heard both Paul and Joe (other teammates/friends) behind me and tried my best to cheer them on a bit here and there. Mile 1 was over in 6:52, according to my watch, but according to the guy shouting off splits to my right directly before a right-hand turn, my first mile was in 6:42. I laughed and said out loud, "Well that's way too fast for me today!" Regardless, I ran a sub-7 mile for the first time in a while - swell!!
My favorite part of this course is the turn around mile 1.3 or so where the course turns back on itself on the same road so you get to see the fast guys as they speed on by. I gave Clint and some others a cheer and watched with envy as they cruised on through the course with beautiful, graceful, speedy strides! Ah, to be that fast!!
Somewhere after the halfway point, we ran down a familiar-looking street...it didn't hit me where I was until I heard a voice saying, "Go Rachel!" I looked to my left and saw my friend Jamie and her husband and their two sweet girls cheering from their front porch! Too cool! Thanks for the cheers and the sweet pic, guys!
Mile 2 was over in 7:15. "Ok, Rachel, time to buckle down and do work," I told myself. I really felt like I had let myself slack off on that second mile.
The final right-hand turn down to the final 6/10ths of a mile or so beckons a mentally tough part of the race - it's the final stretch, yes, but it is also longer than it seems. It can be a challenge to stay 6:58...woot! Back under 7:00 and faster than my 2nd mile! Not exactly negative splits, but I'll take it!
I saw Clint cheering me in to my right and he yelled at me to get off my heels. Come on now, Coach!
I crossed the finish line with a still-sleeping babe in a clock time of 21:26.7. The final 0.06 according to my watch was in a 5:56 pace (not quite as impressive as my final 0.11 according to my watch in yesterday's race ;))....but still kinda fun to be sub-6 if even just for a few seconds!!
After I crossed the finish, I jogged around a bit with Gabe to do a bit of a cool down before joining some of the rest of the team at the finish to hand out water bottles (here's looking at you, Gary and Paul and Steve and Clint!)
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| Gabe was still sleeping, but I had to get Dan Anderson to stand next to him for a quick pic! Can't believe he did the race like this! |
This year's race was held in honor of an Army Ranger who died in Afghanistan. His mother spoke for a bit and shared about his service and about the loss of her son. It was honestly hard to listen as I stood there and held my own little (almost) two-year-old boy as she spoke of the loss of her twenty-two-year-old boy. I cannot even begin to fathom the pain!
Age group award winners each received a neat pair of socks with the initials of the Army Ranger who was honored at the race - pretty special!
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| The weekend's age group awards... |
When I went back to review some times I'd run in previous years, I saw that I ran a 21:31 in 2015 which was my very first race as an Often Running Racing Team member. I remember (and I texted this to some friends/teammates before this year's race!) that I was a bundle of nerves during the week leading up to the race. With it being my first race as a ORRT member, for some reason I had put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and I was PRETTY convinced I was going to trip/fall/otherwise make a fool of myself. While I was a little bit off of my then-current PR of 21:09, I was satisfied with my race and pleased with getting 2nd in my age group and scoring a sweet pair of red, white, and blue USA socks (that I still enjoy wearing to this day!). I also ran the race in 2016 when I was 33 weeks, 2 days pregnant and managed a 28:33 (in Gabe's 11th race!). Sadly I missed out on the sweet/kinda weird drawstring bags made out of cotton sweatshirt material that were presented to the age group winners that year ;)!
For fun, I decided to start a little graph of this year's Stroller 5ks. I plan to (hopefully!) add to it as the year goes on...and HOPEFULLY we will see those times drop as the year moves forward (but who knows!!).
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| My main man, around mile 2.5 (Thanks for the snap, Sharon!) |
Next up...BOSTON?!
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