Seymour Bun Run 5k Results

My 1st time doing this event - It was a nice low key race with a fastish course.  It was fun to have my family all doing the race and my Dad was visiting and he came along to spectate.

We got up around 5:45 am as Seymour is a 50 minute drive.  I made everyone pancakes with blueberries - We kept the volume light.  I will not eat this close to a race (8:00am) but I figured the pace and effort level everyone else would be racing at the breakfast would be OK.

My wife and DD#2 (Kate-7) do not train but have fun participating.  DD#1 (Erin #11) has been running 2 miles 3-4 times a week and was looking forward to the race.

I managed a decent warm up of 3ish miles - Finishing @ 4 minutes before the start.  It was in the mid 70s, but humid, so I had sweated through my clothes in the warm up.  I have not run a 5k in maybe 5 years and only a handful in my life.  I have never run a really good one for my fitness level.

The 1st mile hurt (5:57) - I was trying to run hard but find a comfortable stride.  I never found a relaxed stride all race - This could be trying to use racing flats?  I was breathing hard from the start and my legs were burning early in mile #1.  I am not sure if this is because of my limited speed work or that I ran 100+ miles in the 4 days prior to the race (40 mile long run on Tuesday night).

By 9 minutes into the race I was feeling pretty maxed out.  I was fortunate to have people just ahead of me to focus on and fight to stay with.  Mile #2 (5:58) is the only slight uphill section and by the end of mile #2, I wanted to back off.  I find it mentally easier to fight into the max pain plateau in the last mile of a marathon ~ maybe because of the large investment of 25 previous miles versus 2.

Mile #3 includes a very long straight segment of road with a nice downhill.  My legs were still burning, but I hardly noticed them as oxygen was the real issue.  All I could do was focus on keeping my shoulders back and breathe deeply.  Somewhere in this section I went to 1-1 breathing.  After the downhill there is about 1/2 mile of straight away left to the finish - It feelt like the last corner would never come.  From 14 minutes into the race  to the finish line I had a constant fight between my mind forcing max effort and my body demanding to back off.

Last 1.1 was 6:32 for 18:27.  I think my legs could have done 5-10 seconds a mile faster, but my Vo2 max was the limiting factor (Ability to process oxygen).  I am very happy with the effort and result for my current fitness level and as part of a 140+ mile week.

I went back to run Erin into the finish and was surprised to find her with Jill and Kate.  The 2 girls only goals at this point in the race were beat each other.  I learned that Erin cannot eat that close to a race either as she had been fighting a really bad side ache most the way.  It did give me an opportunity to work with Erin on proper breathing and posture to get the most oxygen into your lungs.

Kate was mentally done after Erin and I pulled away. The last  100 yards before the finish she was walking slowly ... Funny I told Jill to beat her to the finish line and Kate immediately put on a 100 meter sprint to beat her Mom.

A nice family event and day - It makes me happy that they are willing to come and join in on Dad's hobby.

Good running to all!