St. Paddy's 5: Race Recap

St. Paddy’s 5

A race recap? Who am I?!

Pre race with the fam!

Over the weekend my little family and I ran the St. Paddy’s 5 and it was a lot of fun. I have run this race a couple of different times, but it has been a few years. We almost didn’t do it because the weather forecast was looking crummy and without childcare I didn’t want to take Little and risk her getting sick. Thankfully the weather held out and was perfect!

 Mile 1- 8:04

I was surprised how much faster I started and was a bit worried I was going to do myself in, but I felt good so I thought if I could just maintain my current pace I would be fine. My original plan was to run the first mile in the 8:30 range. I was a bit concerned thinking about the last 2.5 miles knowing that I would be running against the wind.

 Mile 2- 7:48

So much for slowing down. Ha. I still felt good so I just kept going and hoped to maintain my pace around an 8 minute average.

 Mile 3- 7:57

Slowed down a bit, but running against the wind wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Was still feeling good and was passing a lot of people.

 Mile 4- 8:08

At this point, I was getting a little tired. Had a slight uphill to run up on the bridge, but knew that I was almost done. Just keep running, right?

 Mile 5- 7:27

I surprised myself! I thought that this was my slowest mile because my legs and lungs were burning and I felt like I was running in slow motion. I even told Cam that the last mile hurt and that it was my slowest.

 Total time- 39:23 (7:52 pace)

Finish! Photo credit BRRC

My goal for this run was to finish in under 45 minutes, thinking that around 41-43 minutes would be my anticipated finish time. I was VERY surprised that I ran a sub 40 at 20 weeks pregnant and averaged less than 8:00 min miles.

After I crossed the finish line I ran back out to find Little and Cam and then ran back into the finish with them. Cam really surprised me and was actually running with the BOB and did awesome. I thought I would have to run back and meet him around the 3 mile mark, but I met him with about ¾ left. He did so good and Little looked like she was having a lot of fun. They finished in 1 hr 53 seconds.  Can’t wait until she can tell us to run faster. Ha.

I haven’t felt this good running in a long time! I have had zero compartment syndrome symptoms and have made strides in continuing to work on my form. Wearing compression sleeves/socks more frequently and using my massage stick really appears to be helping me. It is really making me excited to run post baby!

--T