A 5K a Day

Remember how I ran a 5K on Monday?

Yeah, well, I did it again last night. In 34 minutes and 47 seconds. Over three minutes faster than the night before. No big thing. No big deal. Whatever, I do what I want.

When Christine, the head coach, yelled out my time as I crossed the finish, I blurted "Holy Shit". Then I almost simultaneously vomited and peed my pants because I stopped running immediately instead of slowing down gradually. Dumb. My body was like HEY NOW. I was so surprised by that time. The only other time check I heard had me at an absolutely solid 11-minute mile but I felt that I was slowing down over the course of the race. As opposed to Monday's run, there are tons of gradual hills in the lower loop and we were going around it almost twice. I think it's safe to say that "hills" is up there with "winter" and "Gosselins" on the list of things I don't like.

I have to admit, I ran smart and it worked. I discussed with Jenn that I should actually take it easy on the few flat/downhill stretches on the lower loop and really push myself on the hills. This was a lifesaver and made me look pretty awesome when people would pass me on the downhill and I'd bound past them on the hill as they started to struggle.

I decided to start with the 11-12 minute mile group (after fighting an intense urge to go with the sub-9ers because Guy in a Dodgers Hat was taking off with them...swoon). People took off. I noticed that people are finding it difficult to pace themselves. It's so hard to fight the temptation to keep up with the person in front of you instead of listening to your body. So I really shut everything off around me and paid attention to my own comfort. I didn't speak to anyone and I don't think I looked further than ten feet in front of me the entire time. I was getting in the proverbial Zone.

What to think about when you're running alone?

Usually for me it's, "I'm going to die." But I diversified. I may have solved the meaning of life around mile 2.5.

After about half a mile, I was already negotiating with myself. Well, maybe I'll take a walking interval when I come back around to Bethesda fountain. Maybe I'll grab some water from my bag. Maybe I'll just do one loop. I got up the hill to Bethesda and considered. My throat was dry. But I went straight past. As I passed the "finish line" to begin my second loop, I started using that as my motivation. Every stride was putting me further from the start of the loop and closer to the end. I hit the glorious "blank mind" once or twice on that second loop and boy does time go faster when that happens. I talked urged myself through the hills and imagined an invisible gear shift inside of me.

In conclusion, I murdered that 5K because goddamn it was cold and I really just wanted to go home.