Spring Burst 5K Recap

Today I ran the Spring Burst 5K that is put on by Reason to Run.  I really enjoy their races and they have great shirts.  And this year I finally got one that fit over my enormous breasts!  Of course, it's kind of like a dress for the rest of me, but yay for small victories.

This race is in Cook Park in Tigard and I've always considered Cook Park my running nemesis.  Today I felt like I almost conquered that.  Not entirely -- I could've done better -- but I was > < this close today.  It was still mostly a mental battle.

We had beautiful weather for this run although it was still chilly.  That's always been part of my problem with this park; Fanno Creek runs through it and there are a lot of marshy spots so it's always damp (even in summer, it's very muggy in the wooded areas) and worse when it's chilly.  This always triggers my asthma, and as I found out the hard way my inhaler was nearly empty.  While I was plenty warm, my breathing was very ragged for the first half mile (through the marshes) and then in the top part of the second mile (through the marshy wooded area). 

I also had a lovely wardrobe malfunction by way of my pants.  I wore my running tights and unlike the other two times I've worn these pants the front kept sliding down under my belly chub.  Which (a) makes you feel like your guts are going to spill out and (b) makes you feel like your big fat guts are going to spill out.  I spent a good part of the first mile yanking my pants back up.  This is where it came in handy that getting a big shirt to fit my breasts into meant that it came down really low past my hips so I didn't flash anybody. 

After the first mile I finally got my pants where they wouldn't fall down anymore.  After the second mile I got mostly back into a groove, and then I reached the point where I was just going to run.  I ended up kicking the last .1 mile at a ten minute mile pace.  My A goal for this race was under 40 minutes; my B goal was under 42 minutes and my C goal was under 45.  My Garmin time was 0:42:28 and while I want to check the chip time (it took a while to get to the mat) I think it's still within five or ten seconds (I think the chip time would be a little lower). 

This is my third year running the Spring Burst 5K; 2009 was Reason to Run's first year and this was their inaugural race.  Here's how I've done over the years:

2009:  0:45:18.  I'd been running sporadically for only three months at this time.

2010:  0:41:09.  I was almost three months into marathon training when I did this race last year.  It didn't feel like I did this well though; it's why I want to check my chip time for this year. 

2011:  0:42:28.  I felt a lot better than last year mentally but I wasn't in the physical shape I was then.  This is the first week all year I've run this much:  I ran Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and then today.  21.1 miles over those four runs. 

I'm really sleepy.

I had some calf twinges today, I'll pay particular attention to that in my run tomorrow.  Jules and I both raced today -- Jules did a 10K, yay for her! -- so we're aiming for only eight tomorrow as I had an 11 mile run on my training schedule.  The calf was still tight later today so I RICEd it and it feels a little better.  I'll roll it out before I go to bed.  Which should be soon, I thought about napping all day today but just couldn't manage to doze off.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl