That Darn Race

So I've put off this post, mainly because I've been crazy busy, but also because I kind of wanted to put the 5K behind me, and just forget it, start to train for another one in September. I did so well with my training this time around, but a largepart of my training made me realize that I hate running on a treadmill. I learned to love running outside. Unfortunetly we had awful weather the week and a half before the race, and I won't lie, I made up excuses to not go to the gym and run on the treadmill. I had also forgotten that this course extremely hilly. I'm talking you look at these hills and say to yourself "there is no way I'm running up that".

But that wasn't the problem with the race. I could have handled that. The problem with the race was that all day (and in all honestly for the few days before as well) I felt off. I couldn't explain it, I just didn't feel great. I felt bloated, and crampy. Which is an awful combination. I tried to stretch out and drink water as much as I could before the race. I even went to the bathroom to make sure I wouldn't have to go halfway through. And the first 4-5 minutes I was fine. And then the cramp started. It was the worst side stich I had ever experienced, and I'm not exaggerating. It scared me, because I could feel my side pulsating as I pressed down on it, trying my hardest to work through the cramp and find my stride. But I couldn't.

During this, my heart started racing. I wore my HRM because I wanted to see the calorie burn, but I could feel it around my chest because my chest felt so tight. The number was close to 200 running, and when I was walking refused to go down past 170. For me running it is normally between 150-170, but never really higher than that. I was nervous and scared, and ended up stopping and breathing deeply for 10 seconds about 4 times, but I still couldn't shake this feeling.

Around 1.5 miles (I'm estimating this because it was about halfway between 1 and 2) the cramp wore off. I had taken my HRM off so that it didn't freak me out anymore. I found a stride. My chest still felt tight, but I could breathe without the pain in my side, so that was good. I could deal with chest tightness :-)

I ended up finishing 41:03. Which could have been a lot worse considering my first mile I clocked in at 17 minutes. My average pace time was 13:30, which means that I completed the second and third mile a lot closer to where I wanted to be. I didn't achieve my goal of sub 40, but I did do better than the last time I tried this course (the Best Buddies race last November)

Bad runs happen. I know that. I'm pretty much over it. I did feel awful for about 24 hours afterwards, and I'm pretty sure that with the pain, my asthma acted up. Which explains the chest tightness. I've had asthma since I was 13, but it's very well controlled. It only flares up when I'm working out, am sick, or have pain of some sort. So it all makes sense :-)

I'm moving on. I'm going back to running regularly starting Monday. I am planning on running a 5K in September, and by then I should be able to (hopefully) run the whole thing!