Ugly race

I decided to run an open 5k cross country race Monday, thinking that the time off running because of the stitches could at least be turned into a PR. What I didn't take into account was the fact that I had been feeling sick (pressure in my head, dehydration, temperature sensitivity, lack of sleep), probably a side effect of the antibiotics I'd been taking. In this case, the negative effects of my illness outweighed the potential positive effects of a couple rest days and I ran my worst race ever.

The first part of the race goes through an athletic field, mostly on grass but with a narrow dirt trail before going into the woods. I hit the first mile thinking I'd paced myself perfectly to my goal split of 6:20, and I was surprised to see it was actually 6:48. I told myself the mile mark could be long and I'd just run by feel and see if the splits evened out by the second. I tried not to worry, but there were at least a couple people ahead of me at this point that I had expected to be leading.

In the second mile I moved into the second place female spot just after coming out of the woods. We circled around the other side of the field and began the loop again. I could see the girl in the lead and I tried to focus on staying steady, knowing that it was likely she was slowing down. I came though the second mile in 14:10, and I was shocked that I was running that slowly. I was in the woods at this point so it was difficult to see her, but I tried to maintain focus even though I was feeling discouraged. I was also dripping sweat from my face, which worried me since it was only about 60 degrees out.

Coming out of the woods I had about 800 meters to the finish line and there was too much ground to make up on her. I made it to the finish line in 21:59. I had hoped to break 20, and based on the performances of some people I know (especially my dad and Mark, who both ran well!) I think I should have at least come close to meeting that goal.

The last time I ran a 5k slower than that was my sophomore year in college on an extremely tough course. I also ran a similar time on an easy course that year -- when I lost a shoe mid-race and had to go back to retrieve it. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed with the time, but considering how I had been feeling (and then how I felt the rest of the day) I don't think I could have expected much better. I'll just consider it a learning experience and a tempo run and get back to work trying to figure out these last few weeks before the Quad Cities Marathon.