Race Report: Free to Breathe 5K

I ran the 2nd Annual Free to Breathe 5K in Raleigh this morning. My running life is short enough that there are few races where I can say I've run in all of them, but I can say that about the Free to Breathe 5K. :)

It was a 9:30 AM race start, and I normally do my running (and exercise in general) earlier in the morning. I wasn't grumbling this morning, though, because it was raining early, and I wondered if this would be my first race in the rain.

I got there about 8:15, and the place I parked was actually a pretty good walk from Race Central. After picking up my packet (which was a little disorienting, because I had to go back and ask for safety pins for my race bib, then I had to go back and ask where to get my timing chip--usually they give/tell you all that), I walked all the way back and moved my car a little closer, just before the heaviest rain of the morning started. (I was glad I was still in my car.) Thankfully, the rain lessened and stopped at last, and it became a pretty North Carolina fall morning.

The race course itself was near the start of last weekend's City of Oaks Marathon and Half Marathon. I've been battling fatigue all week from running the half marathon myself, so I was wondering how I'd do this morning. I decided to use it as a training run and not worry too much about the time. I found out just before it started that the course was kinda hilly, which I knew would probably slow me down a bit. I'm thinking a 45-50 minute finish wouldn't be the end of the world.

I decided to start out using the Galloway method, run-walk-run, to see how it would help. I started with a 3-minute run, followed by a 1-minute walk, but some early hills sent me into 1-1. Mile two seemed to be a lot of decline and flat territory, so I ended up running straight for over a mile, then ran/walked some wierd combinations of the last .8 tenths of a mile.

I ended up finishing somewhere around 41:05, still waiting on official and chip times. It's slower than my last few 5Ks, but I knew going into it that I was tired. It's the first time since last Sunday that I've run that long. Here's to a faster trot on the next 5K in a couple of weeks!