Starry Night 5k

There's an evening summer race series near my hometown which we love and run each year. The three races are in June, July, and August. This year we will miss the July race, but my mom went ahead and signed us up for all 3 because there was a promo for a light up tutu if you signed up for the whole series. I'll do a virtual run instead of the actual race in July. I was really looking forward to the Stary Night 5k in June because not only would I have the light up shoelaces mom got us for Christmas, I would also have a light up tutu! Plus there's something about running in the dark which is super fun and they have ice cream at the finish. It's good ice cream too, fudgesicles, creamsicles, bomb pops, you get the picture. After the Get Busy Livin 5k I was burned out and felt like I needed a break so I took 2 weeks of just running what I felt like which ended up topping out at 2 miles a day. Then I decided what I needed was to take the summer to just build a good base and pick up training in the fall. I figured I'd just run base miles with a tempo run thrown in every other week as I used the off weeks to build my long run up to 12 miles to prepare for a fall half-marathon. I decided to use the Starry Night 5k as my first tempo run so I went into it without having done any speed work since mid-April. I knew I hadn't lost all of my fitness since I was still running but I knew I had lost quite a bit of speed. I went into the race with no real expectations, but thinking I could probably still run around 7 minute pace. I knew for sure it would be faster than last year's race at under 3 months postpartum as well as last year's July race, the Midsummer's Night 5k.

Group shot in our race shirts. I opted for a tank top and love it!

Showing off my new tutu!

Dad with mom and her new tutu.

I went out for a mile warm up and then decided to run a little extra because I felt good and had time so I ran almost 2 miles as a warm up. Typically if I'm running under 9 minute pace for the warm up, I know it's going to be a good race and I was hitting 8:30 pace. I felt like I could have a strong race but I'm always a bit nervous when I go into a race with no speed work or tempo runs because I typically use my times from those workouts to judge what pace I am capable of. I took off at the start and felt strong. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and then decided not to worry about it and just go with how I felt since I didn't know what pace I was capable of anyway. Pretty much from the start of the race I was in the 3rd overall female position. At the half mile mark I caught up to girl in second and ran with her for a little over half a mile. I went through the first mile in 6:50 and was pleased that I was under 7 minute pace. About a quarter of a mile later the girl I was running with dropped off pace and I knew we were nearing the turn around point of the race. I saw the first female pass me going the other direction and when I turned she was far enough ahead of me, I could hardly see her. I got to run past dad, Ty with Carter and Elise in the double stroller, and mom. It was fun to see them, cheer for them, and have them yell encouragement to me.

Family shot before the race.

Taking off at the start, that's me to the right of the picture in a blue tutu and grey tank top.

Shortly after the turn around I caught up to pass a guy in front of me. We ended up running together for about a mile. It was nice to have someone to run with and to push me in that middle mile which is usually the hardest for me. We were running side by side on the right side of the trail as people were still heading out toward the turn around on the other side of the trail. It was a lot more congested than usual and in some places I didn't have room to run beside him and would have to tuck behind him until we got around the group going out. I went through the second mile in 7:04 which was slower than the first mile, but I was still fine with it. As we crossed a bridge which I knew meant we had about three-quarters of a mile left, the guy I was running with started dropping back. It had been nice to run with him, so I was a little bummed to see him go. But right around that point in the race I had started to close the gap on the first overall female so I could see her in front of me. Since I had lost my running buddy I started focusing on catching her. There were arches along the path that were wrapped in lights so I would watch her cross under one and then count to see how many seconds elapsed before I crossed under the arch. At a half-mile to go I was 15 seconds behind her. I knew it wasn't probable that I could make up 15 seconds in such a short distance, but I told myself it was possible. When we hit a quarter-mile to go I had cut her lead down to 10 seconds. I knew it was pretty much impossible to catch her, but I used her to help me keep pushing as hard as I could. As we turned the corner toward the finishing arch illuminated by lights, I pushed as hard as I could to the finish and then happily grabbed the water they were handing out to finishers. My third mile split was 7:00 which made for a 21:03 on the slightly short course. I was able to finish 7 seconds behind the girl in front of me.

I ran a cool down back to Ty and ran the finish with him. Carter wanted to get out to run so he ran the last quarter-mile or so with Ty as I followed along with Elise in the stroller. Then I headed back out to run the rest of my cool down to mom and finished with her. We all enjoyed some ice cream and waited around for dad. He had walked out to run/walk to the finish with mom and missed her go by. So he ended up walking out to the turn around and coming back so he walked a 3 mile cool down! Ty ran a cool down out to find him and then mom and Carter walked out after them. I stayed back with Elise who was walking circles, dancing to the music, and picking trash up off the ground. Everyone else arrived back just in time for awards. I had finished 8th out of 403 overall, 2nd out of 271 women, and 1st out of 62 in my age group. Dad was 27th overall and 3rd out of 17 in his age group finishing in 23:40. Ty was 200th overall and 36th out of 46 in his age group with a time of 34:22 while pushing the double stroller and without having run since the Get Busy Livin 5k in April. Mom ran/walked the race in 41:11 which put her 299th overall and 13th out of 20 in her age group. That evening as I talked to Ty he mentioned there were a lot more runners this year than there had been in the previous years we've run. I looked it up and normally there are around 250 finishers, this year there were 403! It is a fun race so I'm not surprised it is becoming so popular. After having so much fun at this race, I'm really bummed we won't get to run it in July. I decided to sign up for the 10k in August and I'm kind of wishing I could run a 5k on the same course in July to see how much I could improve my time. But at least I still got a light up tutu because that was awesome! Now I'll keep building my base miles for the fall. Our next race will probably be a July 4th race and I have no plans to do speed work between now and then.

Finishing the race.

Carter and Ty finishing.

With my award.

Elise playing with my tutu as I buckled Carter into his car seat.