Form fitted 5K

A while back I registered for a 5K race only because it was being held in my zip code. I liked the idea of being able to pretty much walk from my house to the start line. But then I realized that this race was going to occur toward the end of my half marathon training for Boston's Run to Remember, so I was a little concerned it was going to throw my training off.

It turns out that the day of the race, tomorrow, I'm scheduled for a 3 mile "pace" run. A 5K race is 3.1 miles. So it works out perfectly! It's like I was destined to run this race this weekend.

A 3 mile "pace" ("pace" being my half marathon race pace) run works out to my running at about 8:50 min/mile, but my 5K race pace is about 7:30 min/mile, so that'll be off. There's just no way I can run a race and not try my best. It's a hilly course, and I'm still recovering from some foot issues, so I'm not really expecting (or trying) to set a personal 5K best, but I'm too competitive to back off and run the 5K about 3 minutes slower than I know I can. Plus, since the course is hilly I want it to be over as quickly as possible.

After tomorrow's 3 miles I have 12 miles on Sunday, which marks the beginning of the end of training for my next (and last for the time being) half marathon. Since I've had some foot health issues the last couple of weeks I'm a little concerned about the half. But even with the pain I've put in all the miles (except for missing about 8-9 miles worth of runs over a couple days) so we'll see how it goes. I'm running this half for fun anyway.

And that's the weirdest thought of all. I never believed that at 38 years old I'd be running 13.1 miles for fun. Or that I'd travel to do it. Runners are truly sick in the head.