Ugly Sweater 5k #1

Our awesome River Parks system puts on a River Lights event each year when they turn the Christmas tree lights on at the park. There is an Ugly Sweater 5k run in conjunction with the event. We went last year just to see the lights turn on and didn't run the race. They gave out free hot dogs, brownies, and hot chocolate. There were special areas set up to take pictures and they had Santa for the kids to meet. It was a great event and I was excited to go again this year and invited my family to the Facebook event in case they wanted to go. Jeremy and Thomas went with us last year. My parents saw the invite and signed all of us up for the 5k. I hadn't been planning on running the race but immediately got excited about running it. I knew the course was really flat and fast. I started scheming to run a season PR at the race. At the Jenks 5k I ran a 19:55 but the course was long and my Garmin showed a PR 5k of 19:29 for the 5k split of that race. Although I know I ran a 19:29 5k at that race, I feel like it isn't legit since it wasn't my actual finishing time and haven't claimed the PR on Garmin Connect. I really wanted to go for a 19:30 at this race and make my time official. As we got ready for the race, everyone had awesome ugly sweaters to wear but I couldn't find mine. Ty even double checked the attic for me with no luck. Thomas ended up having an extra sweater that he let me borrow. I figured it wouldn't be cold enough to wear the sweater for the whole race so I wore a tank top underneath and planned to throw my sweater off, most likely within a half mile. I wore some Santa boxers and Christmas socks to offset not having an ugly sweater. Mom decided to take Fezzik and run with him because she had gotten him an ugly sweater to wear and he is her running buddy. He looked quite cute and did a great job in the crowds! When we arrived at the race I took off for my warm up and Ty took Carter over to meet Santa. He said Carter told Santa he wanted a red truck he can drive in for Christmas and Santa wasn't so sure that would happen. Elise wasn't interested in Santa, no surprise there. Santa gave each of the kids a little snowman stuffed toy for visiting him. My legs felt off on my warm up, kind of heavy and fatigued, but I still ran my usual pace so I figured the race would probably still go okay.

 

 

 

 

 

Last year race day was beautiful. From what I remember we didn't even wear coats to the event. This year it was in the mid-30's and drizzling rain. If we hadn't been running the 5k I would have skipped the event altogether. The course was also different from last year and although not hilly, not flat like previous years. I saw a couple guys running a warm up together while I was out running mine and figured they would be top finishers. As we lined up at the start, I looked around and was a bit confused as I didn't see them or the guy I had seen running strides before the race. There was a small girl standing with a woman who was wearing knee pads right in front of me so I decided to go ahead and step up to the line. We took off and the guy I had seen doing strides went zooming by so he must have just started a bit back or I hadn't seen him. There were a couple other guys between me and him but not the two I had seen warming up. I took my sweater off about 3/10 of a mile into the race and dropped it on a bench. I checked my Garmin a few times and saw I was running around 6:10 pace. My goal was around the 6:16 pace I averaged at the Jenks 5k. Even though I was hitting my goal pace, my legs felt terrible. I started thinking maybe I wasn't going to be able to shoot for a 19:30 as I had hoped. I decided I'd keep pushing through the first mile and see where I was with that split and determine if I'd be able to force the pace a little or not. I had passed everyone except for the one guy I'd seen doing strides who was way out ahead of me. Then around the half mile mark the two guys I'd seen on my warm up went running by. They immediately made up a large gap on me and I was running alone.

With how my legs felt, how alone I was, and how windy and yucky it was I started to doubt my ability to push the second mile regardless of what my first mile split was. When my split popped up, I was shocked. I had gone through the first mile in 6:41 and had been pushing it. I couldn't believe it! I had run my 10k in early October in an average of 6:40. Running a 5k at 10k pace should feel like I'm pushing the pace, but it shouldn't feel hard! At that point I knew to be anywhere near the time I had been hoping for I'd have to run sub-6:00 miles. That obviously wouldn't be happening on a good day and especially not one where 6:41 pace felt hard. So I backed off and just finished the race. The course was out and back so it was fun to see everyone as I ran back by. I wanted to cheer for mom and Fezzik but I was afraid he would get too excited so I didn't. After the race mom said Thomas had cheered for them and Fezzy got so excited he broke his leash, so I'm glad I didn't yell to him. I finished the race and then ran back out to Ty and the kids so I could run to the finish with them. Carter wanted to get out and run and Ty let him at the very end. It was so cute to see him run across the finish line!

I finished the race in 20:51, 4th out of 144 overall and 1st out of 93 females. The race was really small and I think that was mostly due to the weather. Jeremy finished in 22:23, 5th overall and 1st in his age group. Thomas came in at 23:18 which put him 8th overall and 3rd in his age group. Dad was 13th overall and 2nd in his age group with a time of 24:23. Mom and Fezzik ran the race in 35:09, placing 80th person and 1st dog overall and mom was 1st in her age group. Ty pushed the kids in the double stroller and finished in 36:05 which was 84th overall and 5th in his age group.

Everyone with our shirts, finisher's medals, and awards.

Obviously I was disappointed things went so terribly for me in the race. I went out hoping to PR and finished over a minute slower than anticipated. To put things in perspective, this would have been a decent time for me last year and 20:56 was my PR last season until the Race into the New Year. It wasn't so much my time that concerned me, it was how terribly I felt while doing it. Had I felt that awful running a PR, that would have been acceptable. But I felt terrible running a 5k slower than my 10k pace. At first I was certain I must somehow accidentally be pregnant but once Ty and I talked it over we realized beyond something really out of the ordinary occurring, like me ovulating over a week early, it wasn't possible. I started really thinking things over, trying to determine what went wrong and how I should move forward from here. My goal race for this fall was the Route 66 half-marathon. I knew we were signed up for numerous winter 5ks after the race. My plan has been to maintain 30 mile weeks, continuing speed work through December and then start training for my spring half-marathon in January. My hope was the lower mileage would give my body time to recover and the speed work would keep me from losing all of my speed so I could run decently well at the 5ks. We ran the half-marathon on a Sunday. Then the Turkey Trot 5k that Thursday. I had anticipated running around 21 minutes and was shocked when I pulled out a 20:31 even though I backed off quite a bit during my 2nd mile in fear of my legs getting too fatigued in the second half of the race. I recovered really well and decided to attempt speedwork on Sunday after 2 easy days following the 5k. I figured I'd go out and do an 800 on the track. If it was rough I'd stop. When that went well I shot for 4 repeats and when they went great I decided to go for 6. Once 6 had all gone down without a hitch I went ahead and finished out my usual 8 repeats. I ran them at an average of 3:13 and looked back to see last time I ran the workout I had finished in an average of 3:11. So I felt like I was poised and ready to run well. So why did the wheels fall off during this race? Should I have skipped that speed workout even though it went so well? I was fully prepared to stop if my legs felt overly fatigued but I felt great. I just couldn't quite figure out what the problem had been.

Group shot with the Christmas trees in the background.

Then I started looking closer at my training. That's when I realized I've run a race every weekend since the Tulsa Run 15k at the end of October. That means I've run races for 6 weeks in a row, starting with a 15k race, then a PR 5k in the morning and an evening 5k back to back in the same day, then the crazy hilly Run to the Lights 5k, the Route 66 half-marathon, the Turkey Trot 5k only 4 days after the half-marathon, and then this terrible race. I think my body is finally just saying enough is enough, back off! So I'm not going to push for any more PRs until this spring. I'd still like to run some strong 5ks this winter, but I'm not going to put my hopes on running 19:30 or even sub-20. I'm going to just go out and run for fun and see where that takes me. First up on the list will be race #7 in a row with another Ugly Sweater 5k this weekend, but I'm really more excited about the beer mile that is after the 5k. Then we'll have two weekends off before we run the Race Into the New Year on New Year's Eve and then the Runway Run 5k the following weekend. Hopefully I'll have positive news to share on the state of my legs after this weekend's race!