On Saturday, I ran the Haddonfield Road Race. I’ve run before, and I know the course is moderately challenging. As I said in my training log two weeks ago, coming home from vacation, I caught food poisoning. They diagnosed it, and I am recovering decently. On Saturday I was not 100%, but I felt good enough to toe the line.
Since I am running Philly half marathon again on Saturday, my goal was to tempo and get a good workout from the race. I know the course is one of the most difficult in the area, plus getting over an illness, and the cold weather, there wasn’t a point to go crazy. To be fair, I didn’t think I could go crazy anyway. I had made that goal the night before, and thank goodness I did.
The morning of the race was a disaster. I had gone to bed around 9 pm the night before but ended up sleeping in until 7. I had a few errands to run in the morning before the race and work, and by the time I knew it, I was running late to the race. Luckily, it all worked out, and I made it to the start line. After realizing I was still wearing a fashionable Abercombie Puffer vest, I delayered that, and we were off.
The first mile went up a large hill and turned. There was a huge pack in front, followed by me. Somehow I’ve run a lot of races that I end up running by myself. We ran up the hills of the first mile, and I ran a 6:25. It was precisely where I wanted to be, but I also knew I was tired and fatigued. I didn’t even think I would be able to hold that.
During the second mile, I began catching a few people. I remember last year running that mile completely alone, so I was excited to chase someone. I hit the second mile in 6:26 and was happy.
The last mile had one last hill. Bonus hill, if you want to call it. By that time I hit the mile around 2.5, I was toast. I’ve been training out west, so I secretly hoping my lung compacity would be higher than it was. But I felt like garbage and just powered through. I surged down the hill and ran a 19:59 5k.
The goal was 20 minutes, and I ran 19:59. I’m happy with how it went, with everything that happened in the morning.
Questions for you:
Do you prefer hilly or flat courses?
What is the coldest race you’ve run?
This one was 22 degrees which is one of the colder races I’ve done. I’ve run a few below 20 but around this temperature is about my limit.
Congrats on a great race-out and sub-20! Glad you had someone to chase because that always helps me in a race and I can hold paces I didn’t think I’d be able to do alone. I hope you didn’t get food poisoning from a diner either :(.
The temperatures at any race I’ve run aren’t going to be super impressive… unless we’re talking record heat. The lowest I think was a 5K when it was 29 at start time. That was in Summerville which is generally a little colder in the mornings compared to other parts of Charleston (more inland), but not on the water. Still… temperatures can be misleading because I ran one Charleston Half Marathon (January race) when it was around 40 but had gusting winds that made it feel much colder.
Job well done at haddenfield road race.
That last hill fried my legs..lol
The coldest race I did was 2015
Valentines day 6 degrees outside at race time.
I never warmed up and it was the toughest race I ever did.