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.