Virginia Highlands Summerfest 5K

So coming off the Tri-Cities 5K, I was wondering if I should do another 5K.  I need to work on pacing and 5Ks are a good way to do that.  Plus D and I signed up for another half-marathon, and so I need to stay in shape.  My friend C asked if I wanted to do this race.  Sure why not?  So we signed up.

May 14 and D got sick...like took off work sick (he rarely ever gets sick).  We both thought initially it had been allergies, so I didn't take any precautions.  May 17th, I couldn't get out of bed.  After 2 days off work myself, we both just spent the rest of May sneezing and coughing.  Really bad colds.  I didn't even take MARTA because I had trouble catching my breath for the "long" .2 mile walk from the bus to the office.  Oddly, our gym flooded.  A lot of people told us we should ask the gym for the month back.  However, since neither of us would have gone, and the money would have been wasted by us, we just let that one go.

Anyway, June came, and we decided maybe we should try and train for the 5K.  We walked the dogs 1 mile on Tuesday, ran 3 miles on Wednesday, and ran 1.5 miles on Thursday.  It was hard, and a lot of coughing occurred.  I also noticed my heart rate was a little high, but that's par for the course for me after being sick.

So Saturday rolled around and we met C in Virginia Highland.  She told us we should probably get there at 7:15 (she was walking to the start).  I don't know what I was doing in the morning but we managed to get out of the house by 7:10.  I knew where I wanted to park, but there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road, so we parked pretty close to the start.  I wasn't going to try to park near the finish (which wasn't that far away), because I didn't want to be on a street that was still closed once we finished.  So we parked and met up with C.

I hadn't seen her in a few months so we chatted a lot.  D is a man of few words, so he just listened to his music.  We wanted to get a bite after, but McMenamin is in dog training so our time has been limited this spring.  C and I thought we would be close in time.  C mentioned it was 90% humidity.

The race directors corralled everyone to the start.  We started uphill.  I was like, "Great."  D said it looked like we would walk up the hill to the start and immediately turn.  The race started and C started moving while I was looking at who knows what, so she started before me.  D and I started and of course he passed me within 10 seconds.  I found C ahead of me, but decided to run my own race and not catch up, because we might end up walking and chatting.  So, we turned off Virginia and ran down Lanier.  I did pretty well, although the street was crowded.  It is a divided street and we were only supposed to run on the right side.  Luckily some people decided that wasn't happening and ran on the left, so it was able to spread out and I could run my own pace.

At Minute 4, I took a break and it was on a hill.  Hooray.  Got up the hill and there was a decline.  I wasn't completely done my walking minute, but restarted. C was still in front of me.  We turned onto Avalon and it was Minute 9.  Another hill.  Weird!  I walked again.  I looked at my watch and it said I was already at .75 miles.  I was a little tired, and it was hot.  We turned on Lanier again (I was running) and ran up a slight incline and then turned around (hence the divided street).  I was feeling very good, but I drive this neighborhood a lot and knew it was hilly.  And we seemed to be going down a lot, and I knew we would have to go back up.  I ran past the 1 mile marker right as my Garmin dinged...12:30.  That's a nice pace.  Hopefully I'll keep it.

It seemed really hot, although some streets were tree-lined, some were dead in the sun.  C was still in front of me.  We were on McLynn, and it seemed to be rolling hills.  I looked at my Heart Rate Monitor a few times and it was saying 181.  I'll have to keep my eye on that.   I'm felt strong though, so I skipped walking at Minute 14...I was probably on a downhill.  I hit 1.52 at 19 minutes.  I started walking but I saw the water stop in front of me and the uphill that followed  So I ran to the water station and walked through it and up the hill.  I  saw my HR was 184, so I didn't pay attention to the time and just decided to walk until I got it down or there was a downhill.  Turned on to Stillwood and it went down hill so I ran.  I got almost all the way up (yes went back uphill) and the HR went to 186. Walked.  I finally crossed Mile 2 at a time of 13:30.

Ok we seemed to have been going uphill a lot. Where's the downhill?  Yes, off of Stillwood and on Los Angeles.  I'm completely turned around of where I am, but oh well.  On North Virginia.  Good God! Another hill.  Just go up.  I started a decent pace.  C was still infront of me.  Keep it up.  I'm having trouble breathing.  I'm kind of feeling light-headed.  I need to cough.  I feel like I'm going to vomit. Holy crap, 189?  I'm walking.  Oh another downhill on Hudson, but uphill back at 189.  While walking I did notice how many houses are being renovated.  Lots of Spot-o-Pots out.  C was getting farther away.  Got up Hudson and it was flat.  I started running again, and we finally were on Virginia.  I didn't see C anymore.  We crossed Highland, so I knew the end was near.  Turned on Todd, and Rupley.  I was tired. More downhill though, and if I ran there, I'd be done sooner.  The sun was hot.  At Adair and Todd, I saw D.  I had to be close.  The Garmin dinged and I saw 14:45.  If I hadn't started coughing hard right there, I might have been upset.  Oh well.  Todd was all downhill and I ran it.  Finally turned on Barnhill and there was the finish.  4 people passed me, but I just didn't care to press it at that point.  I crossed at 42:27, according to my watch.  I immediated saw C (she finished about 1:30 before me).  D finished at 29 something.

Evidence of why I had to slow down

We talked about brunch again, but it was actually too early to go anywhere.  So C walked home and we walked back to the car/drove home. And then took McMenamin to training.

Me and McMenamin waiting for training to start

Overall, although it wasn't the race I wanted it to be, I managed to run 2 miles at a decent pace, although I need to be more even on that.  I know from experience my heart rate is crazy when I'm sick, so although it is hard to talk myself out of running, seeing the number on the watch makes me stop.  I also know I need to keep lifting weights (funny, since I just told D I didn't feel like lifting tonight.).  And I was 3 seconds faster than a race last July in similar weather conditions, although I was in better shape last July.  So there's that.

Summerfest Course