Monday, December 7, 2015

Freezeroo #1 Don Curran Memorial 5k 2015

I mentioned last week that I was excited to be doing the Freezeroo series this winter, as a way to stay motivated and get outside. This weekend was the first race of the series, and oddly wasn't very Freezerooish with the weather- but no one was complaining. Temperatures were in the low 40's I think, with a slight breeze.

One of the things I love about the series, is that the races don't start until 10 AM. I was in bed until about 8:30 with my coffee, waffles and the newspaper....maybe even a little later. The series races take place all around Rochester, and this one happened to be 10 minutes from home.

My friend was working the packet pickup and said it was a fast course ( I didn't know this course) and I thought he was messing with me, I would proceed to spend most of the race waiting for a mountain to jump out of nowhere. It didn't.
Photo credit: GRTC
These races are so low key, everyone just hangs out chatting until the start. We took off and I instantly went out way too fast. I was running 5:35-45 pace for the first half mile- NOOOOO Laura. The first mile had lots of little turns through and around parking lots until we finally got out on a main road. I hit the first mile in 5:58, I was like okay just hold on to that.

The second mile featured a half mile out and back portion. This told me I was somewhere in top 10 overall, and only had one female in front of me. Goal, don't get passed. I enjoyed the out and back portion, cheering for friends and hearing their support on the other side as well. Mile 2 was 5:59.
Smile for the camera....in the last mile.
The last mile meant weaving back through the parking lots and turns, which didn't excite me but wasn't a big deal. I knew I could keep running for a few more minutes and just focused on hitting one turn to the next. I could hear heavy breathing not far behind me and knew someone was close, DON'T get passed damnit.

I found that kicker of a gear and went through the line without getting passed, 18:49 and good enough for second female and my second fastest 5k time.  I also took 5th overall, always fun to do that....nice to see 2 women in top 5 of a race(even for a small race).

I'm really happy with this, and it was a good start to the series. I know I won't be able to run "race speed" for all of the races....snow and sub-zero temps are inevitable. So it was nice to come out with a bang and can then try and hold on for the remainder of the races whatever the weather brings. The girl who won the race was not registered for the series, so she gets the race win but I get the points for the win in the series (if that makes sense).

As for my personal race, I'm happy with the time and also happy with stringing together those two sub-6 miles. I struggle with that and found this race to be good progress. I do wish though that I had more grit in that last mile. My kick was faster than it should have been, meaning I wasn't doing enough in the last mile. I could have been pushing more, there may not have been people around me but I should be able to push myself regardless. Not a complaint, just something that I know I can work on though going forward.

The next Freezeroo race is on New Years day, which I will not be doing. It's important for me to not have running/racing invade every part of my life. I'm looking forward to ringing in the New Year with Brian and not worrying about what needs to happen the following day. This will probably be the only series race that I miss, and that's ok. You need 4/6 of the races to be eligible for awards and I plan on doing all of the rest. Lucky for me, I should have some company from Britt and Heather for the 5 miler on January 9th!

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on another awesome 5K! Awesome time and love your big smile in your race photo. Can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for you and your running! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete

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