Hello from Boston, where everyone is freaking out about the Patriots. I’m not much of a football fan but it’s fun to be a part of the triumphant atmosphere around the city. Plus, this year I got to spend the morning racing–way more up my alley! I found out about the Super Sunday 5 Miler from friends and thought it would be a good opportunity to lay it all out there and get a read on where my fitness is at after base building for most of December and January. I had an easy 10 miler on Saturday, which I worked super hard to keep slow (not easy) in order to save my legs for Sunday morning.

J and I drove over to the race and Alexa had grabbed us our bibs, so she and I went out for a 2 mile warm-up jog while J stashed our bags. It was COLD–in the mid 20s and feeling even colder with the gusty winds, so the warm-up was key just in terms of keeping the feeling in our fingers and toes. Afterwards we gingerly ditched our outer layers and did some dynamic drills before heading to the start. We all crammed into the starting area and true to form for these shorter races, the start was a mess–we loaded in the corrals and then had to turn around completely, so the speedsters were in the back and the more causal runners were in the front. Ooops! I ended up jammed in with some November Project folks who kept the mood light and positive with a little customary bounce.

Given the line-up snafu, the first mile of the race was a little bit disheartening with runners passing me left and right. I meant to hold back during this mile, but I ended up at 6:46–a little fast. The cold, wind, and slight hills definitely slowed me down, but I was able to keep pace with one of the guys I had started with (nice job Malcolm!!) and stay in the 6:40s-6:50s for the next few miles. By mile 5 I was feeling pretty cooked–my goal was to leave it all out on the course and I knew I had. I pushed the pace a bit and tried to pick off runners as I could, but the 5k course had rejoined at that point and it was tough to choose who pace with. My customary final kick didn’t materialize, but I did pick up a 6:29 final mile for a 34:24 finish–average pace of 6:45/mile. While that wasn’t a PR, I think for the conditions it was a strong performance. (The last 5 miler I did was actually on a notoriously short course, so according to Strava my average pace for that one was 6:57/mile–so sort of a PR??)

As some of you saw on Instagram, I’m officially back in marathon training mode! At 31 miles, this was my longest training week since November and it felt AWESOME. With the help of a coach, I’m headed for the Sugarloaf Marathon on May 21st. Can’t wait to tell you more on all of this in an upcoming post!!

Happy day to all of the Pats fans (and to the Falcons fans and basically everyone else–sorry?) I’ll be back soon to dive into my marathon plans and goals for #bqorbust round two!

Linking up with Tuesdays on the run 🙂