Rebuilding and a Race

I marked my second week of post-injury running with a race this morning. It was the Broomfield Days 5K–a tiny little race that is held during the ‘burb’s annual community celebration. Last year the race had fewer than 150 entrants; I’m guessing that this year’s turnout was about the same.

I debated quite a bit before deciding to enter this race, both because I wasn’t sure I wanted to pony up the $20 and because I thought it might be a bit too much of a strain on my foot. However, in the end, I was convinced by several twitter friends that the cost wasn’t out of line, and I thought that as long as I didn’t push too hard, my foot could probably handle it.

I didn’t know quite what to expect from this race but I knew it was going to be pretty low key (the picture is of the finish line; low-key may be an understatement). No clocks at the start or finish, and no gun to start it…I think it was basically just a “Runners ready…3, 2, 1 go!” that started us off. My first mile was probably a bit too fast given my current level of fitness, about 8:27 according to the guy that was calling out times (I decided not to wear my Garmin or even a watch so I wouldn’t worry about my time). And I held the pace pretty well through mile 2; I think I hit about marker in just over 17 minutes. However, in the 3rd mile, my pace dropped a bit and I ended up finishing in 26:55, which is about an 8:40 pace. Not a great time, but better than I expected and good enough for 4th place in my age group.

I’m pleased that my foot seemed to hold up well; it felt pretty good during the race and afterward was just a bit stiff. So overall, I’m pretty happy with how I’ve been recovering.

I started back 2 weeks ago by doing 4 short runs, all with planned walk breaks every few minutes, and I continued the cross-training I’ve been doing. This week on my Tuesday run I also took planned walk breaks, but increased the mileage to just over 5, and Thursday, I again ran about 5 miles but with no walk breaks after my warmup. I also managed to get in a swim, some strength work, and one quick bike interval session this week in addition to today’s race. And I’ll probably wrap up the week tomorrow with an easy swim.

I’m hoping to be feeling good enough by next weekend to get in 7-8 miles or so on my ‘long’ run, and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to get in a couple of 10+ milers before the Denver Half Marathon on October 18. I’m feeling good enough that I think I’ll be able to complete the race, but since I’ve lost quite a bit of solid training time, I’m probably going to run/walk it and just try to enjoy the experience. A PR can wait for another time.

No related posts.

Tagged as: 5K, Broomfield Days