March Mad Dash Recap

The March Mad Dash is a race at North Park, where I run about once a week or so.  The path around the lake is a 5 mile loop and the March Mad Dash was either a 5K, 5 mile, or 10 mile race.  I signed up for the 5 mile race because I want to build towards the half marathon but I haven't even done 10 miles yet for my long run so I wasn't ready for that leap.

I was so nervous about this one.  We do this loop most of the time we run there and we're usually slightly over 50 minutes but that's running with other people (and Colleen especially is faster- I tend to run faster with her).  Also, most of the time we use the Jeff Galloway method of run/walk intervals, normally in 4:1 minute increments.  I had no idea what to expect time wise.  I told Dave I was aiming for 50 minutes but it could be slower or faster.  (I didn't really think I could do much faster than 50 minutes, honestly.)

This was my friend Sonja's first 5K in a few years and we saw her at the beginning as well as Colleen, who was taking race pictures.  It's really nice to have people to talk to before a race.  They also had booths set up although we didn't really look at many of them.

Photo courtesy of Colleen
I'm in the blue on the right and Sonja is in the pink to the right of me.

All 3 races started at the same time and place, by the boat house, so Sonja and I started out running together.  I told her if she wanted to go faster, to do it.  My original goal was to stay around 10:00 miles and push it towards the end if I had enough energy.  I wasn't really paying attention to my watch although I did tell Sonja every .25 miles how far we were and noticed we were slightly ahead of a 10:00 pace.  When we hit the first mile, Sonja asked if I wanted to speed up and I said no, telling her that I wouldn't be able to maintain much faster for 4 more miles.  So she sped up and we split off at that point.  (BTW, Sonja came in first place in her age group!)

When I reached the 5K turnaround, I actually saw Sonja coming back right before it.  I almost missed her- I wasn't really paying attention and didn't even realize the 5K turnaround was coming up!

The miles actually kind of flew by.  It might be that this course is so familiar.  I did notice things like the 5K turnaround for the Resolution Run, and I knew where the hills were and was prepared for them.  They aren't really that bad at North Park, but I knew how far they were and mentally promised myself with each one that if I pushed to get to the top I'd let myself walk after that for just a little bit.  Then I'd get to the top and decide that was the hardest part and just keep running.

I also made an effort to pass people more than I normally would.  If I caught up with someone, I tried to push enough to speed up and get around them and put a little bit of distance between before slowing down.  That seemed to give me something to focus on as well.

There were pretty decent water stops- I think there were 4 on the course at each mile and another one right after the timing mats for the 10 mile race.  I didn't stop at any of them, but when I got past the water stop at mile 4 I decided to walk for one minute.  I didn't want to walk more or less.  I felt I needed a little bit of energy.  And I did, walked, just one minute.  A guy I had talked to at the 5K turnaround passed me and encouraged me that it was really close and to keep going!  But I wanted that full minute to rest a little bit.  And it worked- I passed him, and in the last half mile really started to ramp up my pace (for me).  The last 2 .25 mile splits were 2:13 and 2:15, so slightly under a 9 minute mile pace for half a mile. And even with the walk, my last mile was still under 10:00.

Approaching the finish line.  Look, all 3 of us have both feet off the ground. :)

I ended up running a little farther than 5 miles- I started somewhat behind the start line and my GPS had me at 5.07 over the finish line.  As I rounded the corner at the end I really kicked it up and according to my GPS was around a 6:20 mile pace!  I don't know how people do that for an extended time though.

I was so focused on the final burst that I missed my official time but per the pictures I saw later, it was around 47:55 or 47:56 which is a pace of 9:27 for the whole race (counting the extra .07 miles though).  I'm pretty amazed at that.  My sister told me to aim for a 9:30 race for the 5K in Savannah and I thought she was nuts- that I couldn't maintain that speed for 3 WHOLE miles!  And I just did for 5!

Photo courtesy of Colleen

So here are my mile splits:

Mile	Mile Pace	Total Time
1	09:31	09:31
2	09:21	18:51
3	09:23	28:15
4	09:27	37:41
5	09:48	47:29
5.07	00:26	47:55

My slowest mile includes the minute of walking, and I can't believe I was around or below 9:30 for each mile that I fully ran.  I never expected to be able to do that!  (Yeah I'm still saying wow to myself pretty frequently.  I know it's not fast for most runners but it's definitely better than I really thought I could do.)

My fastest .25 "lap" was 2:13 and my slowest .25 "lap" was 2:45 (which included walking).